Antigone

Last night I had the unique opportunity to see a production of Antigone. Some friends told me they had a spare ticket and asked if I'd like to go. I met them at Bob Jones University's Performance Hall and we chatted a while before they opened the doors. When we got in we were given programs which informed us that it was not Sophocles' Antigone we were watching, but one written by Jean Anouilh.
Anouilh was a French playwright who lived from 1910 to 1987. He was largely unsuccessful as a playwright until 1942 when he wrote his version of Antigone. It was first performed on February 6, 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Paris. As the ancient work of the same title, Anouilh's Antigone addressed issues such as state control and the citizen's responsibility to obey.
To get it past the Nazi sensors, the play pictures a very different Creon from Sophocles. The message that men have the responsibility to obey God rather than men is less central. Creon appears less like a tyrant and more like a man trying to hold together a bad situation in the midst of modernity. Antigone begins with a carefully worked out righteousness that crumbles into something like whining and a simple dogged resolution that she was already right and no new information can alter her own opinion.
The play is very similar to Sophocles' original and does little damage to the well-known story line. Anouilh made some modern alterations, but managed to keep the Chorus who solemnly proclaim at one point that they know how things will end up because it is their "job to know."
I was enthralled. I watched eagerly as the events I knew took form and played themselves out on stage. I have not fully processed the message of the play and want to get my hands on the text to read it.
The production itself was fantastic and I was glad I went.