Antigone. After Sophocles. The Greek Project. Directed by
Katie Cawthorne and Alison Plevey. Canberra Youth Theatre. Sept 1 -3 at 7pm. C
Block Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre.
Tiny theatre, tiny season, full houses, been and gone.
But the treatment of Antigone by a small cast all thoroughly
absorbed in telling the last story of the family of Oedipus was a gem from
Canberra Youth Theatre that ought to be noted.
Seven actors (Kitty Malam, Stefanie Lekkas, Richard Cotta,
Thomas Mifsud, Alexander Castello, Isha Menon and Mia Tuco) only and performed
on a dark long set, spattered with strange stains, in what looked like
butchers’ aprons, spattered with similar stains. (Stage/costume design by Kate
Llewellyn) No masks were worn but there was an arresting eye surrounding makeup
design from Casey Elder that alienated but forced attention on faces at key
moments.
At some moments there was a sense of the Greek chorus,
commentating, questioning, from the group. At others the individual characters
emerged with clarity and conscience. Above all there was an understanding of
the play and a strong ensemble working together to communicate that to the
audience.
A young cast but the voices of deeper older experience were
heard, particularly in Tuco’s calm voiced commentaries and in Cotta’s capturing
of Creon’s stiff necked ingrained stubbornness. Add to this Malam’s forthright
voice of conscience as Antigone, Lekkas’ Ismene understandably urging prudence
and survival, Mifsud’s Sentry and his believable nervousness at bringing bad
news to a king, Isha Menon’s knowledgeable dignity as the prophet Tiresias and
the tense and fatalistic despair of Castello’s Haemon and the result was a
superb example of what youth theatre can and should do.
A brief season indeed but a memorable version of Sophocles’
play.
Alanna Maclean
