A local production of Sophocles’ “Antigone in a contemporary setting
It is a somber atmosphere created by dark surroundings that are only dispelled by hues of suffocated light.
The floor is a shamble where garbage as well as old furniture pieces including a wooden coffin, a ladder and a dining table, are scattered.
The people living in that gloomy backdrop are adept but frustrated melancholic figures. They are meant to infuse movement into the lethargic monotony and accentuate the destitute and macabre conditions triggered by a war where the victims are lost and homeless.
Only when the lights are switched back on and the curtains are drawn, do you realize that you are out of the battlefield.
These are the impressions you get one hour into “Antigone in Ramallah, Antigone in Beirut, currently on show at Al Hanager Theater at the Opera House Grounds.
The performance could be shocking for the uninitiated who will likely feel lost in a maze of impressions and moods. The loose plot, written and directed by Mohamed Abu Al Saud, is reminiscent of a Virginia Woolf with its stream of consciousness technique.
“It is not a play in the full sense of the word as some might think, clarifies Abu Al Saud. “It is originally a poem that I wrote following the latest Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
“I was inspired by the ancient Greek play Antigone. The lead character has to undertake the task of burying her two brothers, who kill each other as foes in the battlefield, he says.
In the original play Antigone is warned by her uncle Creon, the King of Thebes, not to bury one of her brothers, whom he consider a traitor, and to leave his body in the wilderness to be devoured by vultures.
She defies the order and listens to her conscience and buries both brothers saying: “It is the dead/ Not the living, who make the longest demands/ We die forever . So Creon decrees that she is to be locked in a cave to die with three days rations.
Ahmed Turki, Ahmed Yahia and Reem Higab play Antigone and her two brothers in a contemporary context.
The play is a reading of the tragic and pathetic conditions suffered by the victims of the gory conflicts in the Arab world.
But why Beirut and Ramallah?
“The Beirut reference is obvious because the text was a strong reaction to Israel’s summer offensive, but Ramallah also represents Baghdad, Sudan and other Muslims countries that have to bear the brunt of colonial policies, said Abu Al Saud.
As the director passed out copies of the booklet containing his poem in Arabic and English, he explained how he had managed to turn the poem into a stage performance.
“The three actors are originally experienced dancers. Otherwise they could not have been able to cope with the fast rhythm especially at the end where you get the feeling you’re watching an action movie.
“The set design was intentionally minimalist to keep the focus on the script and have the actors deliver the words in the most effective way, he added.
“Antigone in Ramallah, Antigone in Beirut will start running this week. It premiered during last December’s Cairo Experimental Theater Festival and represented Egypt in other regional festivals to wide acclaim.
