Antigone
Antigone is a moving dance theatre piece about resistance, conscience and the price an individual pays when they stand up to authority. In the spirit of Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater.
With Antigone, choreographer and theatre-maker Alan Lucien Øyen revisits Sophocles’ famous tragedy and places it firmly in our own time. The story of the young woman who defies King Creon’s order to leave her brother unburied is a timeless tale of conscience, power and human dignity.
Festival Julidans
Programme section Julidans On Stage
Dutch premiere
Location Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
Venue Grote Zaal
Run time 150 minutes, incl. intermission
Genre Dance
Language Language no problem
Antigone
When the curtain rises, a woman’s body hangs motionless in the air, her shadow cast against wooden walls reminiscent of the gates of Thebes. The ending is revealed immediately. What follows is the question of how it could have come to this.
Øyen does not opt for a classical retelling, but for a radical reinterpretation. Sophocles’ text forms the starting point for a production filled with contemporary images and meanings. A litany of women’s names: Malala, Britney Spears, Marilyn Monroe – followed by the fate that befell each of them. What happens when law and justice begin to diverge? When political systems falter? And when a single individual finds the courage to speak out? In a performance where dance, theatre, spoken text and music merge, these questions become a prism through which to view our own world.
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On stage is an international ensemble of dancers and actors, including performers from Tanztheater Wuppertal, the world-famous company that, under the direction of Pina Bausch, permanently shifted the boundaries between dance and theatre. The role of Antigone is played by dancer and film actress Marion Barbeau. Together they form a chorus of voices and bodies that carries on the legacy of Tanztheater: a physical and emotionally charged theatrical language in which movement and text reinforce one another, and bodies speak where words fall short.
Øyen’s Antigone is a poignant quest for truth, dignity and the price of resistance.
Alan Lucien Øyen
Alan Lucien Øyen (Bergen, 1978) is a choreographer, writer and director. He grew up in Norway, behind the scenes at the theatre in Bergen, studied dance in Oslo and danced with various European companies before founding his own interdisciplinary company, winter guests, in 2006. With this company, he creates performances in which dance, theatre and text merge into emotionally charged, personal works.
Credits
Direction/choreography Alan Lucien Øyen
With Enoch Grubb, Douglas Letheren, Pascal Marty, Antonin Monié, Nazareth Panadero, Héléna Pikon, Julie Shanahan, Fernando Suels Mendoza, Meng-ke Wu
Creative collaborators Andrew Wale, Daniel Proietto
Set Design Åsmund Fæarvaag
Costume Design Stine Sjøgren
Light Design Martin Flack
Sound Design Gunnar Innvær, Mathias Grønsdal
Technical manager Chris Sanders
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Stage managerDaniel Hones
Wardrobe manager Anna Lena Dresia
Executive producer Essar Gabriel
Producers Ornella Salloum, Syv mil (v/ Tora de Zwart Rørholt / Ingrid Saltvik Faanes)
Still photography Mats Bäcker
In co-production with Fondazione Teatro di Roma, The Norwegian Opera and Ballet
Supported by Arts Council Norway, City of Bergen
Rehearsal space in kind support received from Pina Bausch Zentrum
This performance is supported by
