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 English
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. 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
Antigone
Creation by Alan Lucien Øyen
With Marion Barbeau*, Enoch Grubb, Douglas Letheren, Indra Lorentzen*, Pascal Marty, Antonin Monié, Nazareth Panadero, Julie Shanahan, Fernando Suels Mendoza
*Roles originally created by Meng-Ke Wu, Héléna Pikon
Produced by Winter Guests
In co-production with Fondazione Teatro di Roma, The Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Centro Servizi Culturali Santa Chiara
Supported by Arts Council Norway, City of Bergen
Rehearsal space support by Pina Bausch Zentrum
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Direction/choreography Alan Lucien Øyen
Creative collaborators Andrew Wale, Daniel Proietto
Set Åsmund Færavaag
Costume Stine Sjøgren
Light Martin Flack
Sound Gunnar Innvær, Mathias Grønsdal
Technical manager Chris Sanders
Stage manager Daniel Hones
Executive producer Essar Gabriel
Producers Ornella Salloum, Tora de Zwart Rørholt, Ingrid Saltvik Faanes
Still photography Mats Bäcker
This performance is supported by
