ANTIGONICK

By: Sophokles
Translated by: Anne Carson
Director: Ruth Madoc-Jones (Acting, 1993)
Movement director: James Viveiros (Residencies, 2023)

The 2024 graduating class of the English Section presents Antigonick, Anne Carson’s stunning translation of Sophokles’s luminous and disturbing tragedy, given entirely fresh language and new life.

Audience disclaimer: Antigonick touches on intense subjects, including war, suicide, and death.

Dates & location

From December 12 to 15, 2023 at 7:30pm
December 16, 2023 at 1:00 pm

Duration: 1h15

Ludger-Duvernay Theatre,
Monument-National Campus
(St-Laurent metro)
1182 Saint-Laurent, Montréal

The show is in English.

Cast & creative team

Everything seen on stage and all that goes on behind the scenes is created by students in Production Design and Technical Arts, Set and Costume Design, and Acting, under the guidance of professional guest artists.

See the full cast and creative team

Tickets

Tickets available here.
Note that all our student shows are FREE. You can support our students' work by making a donation to the National Theatre School (NTS).

A Word From the Director, Ruth Madoc-Jones (Acting, 1993)

‘oh sister and daughter of Oidipous,
Who can be innocent dealing with you
There was never a blank slate…’
Anne Carson, Antigonick, 2012

The above quote is from Anne Carson’s play text introduction regarding her task of adapting Antigonick. Carson is a classicist and poet who reads Greek, so her adaptation is based on the original. From this, she edits the play to its dramatic core, invents language (noonsunstink), plays with the Greek (bebarbarbizmenized)*, jolts us into the present with anachronisms of 20th-century philosophers, and rejigs Antigone’s name to connect with the mysterious ever-present ‘Nick’ (time); all to re-present and disturb the well-known myth.

The quote struck me as I imagined this play on stage with an audience. Even if we don’t know the story of Antigone directly, we can all connect, I believe, with her struggle for justice despite her fatal absolutism, which is a rare (at times questionable) quality shared by only the most courageous. We know who they are. Carson’s language is at the forefront of this work, and as artists, we lean into it to find the heart beating underneath. It is a verse that travels from late Victorian formality to the present to tell the story, asking you, the audience, to lean in to hear the voice of this young person who dares to confront unjust authority. It is an echo we hear today on our streets.

* Carson’s “Bebarbarizmenized” “translates” Sophokles’ βεβαρβαρωμένῳ (bebarbarōmenōi), a term that derives from the word βάρβαρος (barbaros, whence “barbarian”), an onomatopoeia that Greeks applied to anyone who didn’t speak intelligible Greek. Kinnucan. M, Hypocrite Reader, 2012 https://hypocritereader.com/18/untimely-translations

Team

CAST - graduating students

Nora Barker^A3
Chorus Leader
Grand Falls-Windsor, NL
Ktaqmkuk, traditional Beothuk & Mi'kmaw territory

Bénédicte Bélizaire^A3
Guard / Messenger
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Juliette Diodati^A3
Euridike
Montréal, QC
Tiohtià:ke, unceded Kanien’kehà:ka territory

Olaoluwa Fayokun^A3
Nick
Winnipeg, MB
Treaty 1 Territory

Dylan Hawco^A3
Kreon
Cambridge, ON
Haldlmand Treaty, Six Nations of the Grand River

Seeara Lindsay^A3
Antigone
Pickering, ON
Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation and Williams Treaties signatories of the Mississauga and Chippewa Nation

Fatima Lopez^A3
Ismene
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Günün a atük and Wallmapu territory

Jessica Rose^A3
Teiresias
Kitchener, ON
Traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee Peoples

Mirza Sarhan^A3
Haimon / Boy
Saudi Arabia / India

CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM - graduating students

Pen Tsin^SCD3
Costume Designer
(They/Them)
Montreal, QC
Tiohtià:ke, unceded Kanien’kehà:ka territory

Andrea McMillan^PDTA3
Lighting Designer
Châteauguay, QC
Traditional territory of the Kanien'kehà:ka

Matthew Lawler^PDTA3
Video Designer
Montréal, QC
Tiohtià:ke, unceded Kanien’kehà:ka territory

Matt Lalonde^PDTA3
Sound Designer
Waterloo, ON
Traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples

May Nemat Allah^PDTA3
Stage Manager
Alexandria, Egypt

Alex Sinclair^PDTA3
Production Manager
Saint John, NB
Menaquesk, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Wabanaki (Dawnland Confederacy), the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kma’ki, Abenaki and the Passamaquoddy

Bea Crowther^PDTA3
Technical Director
Lennoxville, QC
Traditional and unceded territory of the Abenaki people and the Wabenaki confederacy

Delton Kreller^PDTA3
Assistant Technical Director
Brandon, MB
Treaty 2

CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM - professionals

Ruth Madoc-Jones (Acting, 1993)
Director

James Viveiros (Residencies, 2023)
Movement Director

Fernando Maya Meneses (Set and Costume Design, 2023)
Set Designer

Siloé Melançon (Création et production, 2023)
Assistant to the Costume Designer

CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM - students

Nezren Pittoors-McMahon^PDTA2
Assistant Lighting Designer

Joao Veloso^PDTA1
Associate ATD

Eiden French^PDTA2
Head Carpenter

Nico Noguera^PDTA1
Assistant Stage Manager

Max Malfara^PDTA1
Assistant Stage Manager

Alex Joyce^PDTA2
Head of Lighting

Elizabeth Page^NP
Head of Sound

Zoe Daca^PDTA2
Head of Video

Amy Cuthbertson^PDTA1
Head of Flies, Carpenter

Sephora N'Kosi^PDTA1
Lighting Assistant, Carpenter

Dani Royer^PDTA1
Video Assistant, Carpenter

Katie Webb^PDTA1
Sound Assistant, Carpenter

Tiphaine Bézie, Margot Bryson, Nila Dutton, Daria Famili, Maya Padlewska, Angeles Silva Lizarraga, Simone Turcotte, and Mégan Vallée ^SCD1
Costume and scenic paint assistance

Nila Dutton^SCD1 and Angeles Silva Lizarraga^SCD1
Dressers

COACHES

Andrea Lundy
Production Management Coach and Program Director

Michelle Ramsay
Lighting Design Coach

Rob Denton
Sound Design Coach

Cameron Davis
Video Design Coach

Hannah Fisher (Set and Costume Deign, 2019)
Costume Design Coach

Autumn Coppaway
Technical Direction Coach

Theresa Tsang
Stage Management Coach

Rebecca Harper
Head of Movement

Jonathan Patterson
Head of Music

Nancy Benjamin
Voice Coach

Anita Nittoli
Fight Director

Sue Williams
Production Dramaturge

Marjorie Lefebvre
Technical Coach

Tim Rodrigues (Production Design and Technical Arts, 2006)
Head Electrician

Bianca Bernier
Head of Sound

Jérémie Bérubé
Head Carpenter

Guillaume Simard (Création et production, 2010)
Head of Carpentry

Christian Larochelle
Assistant Carpenter

Veronique Pagnoux
Scenic Painter

Angela Rassenti (Set and Costume Design, 2008)
Head of Props

Mayumi Ide-Bergeron (Set and Costume Design, 2021)
Wardrobe Storage

Julia Metzger and Michael Slack (Set and Costume Design, 2001)
Heads of Wardrobe

Alain Spooner
Cutter

Raphaëlle Rieu, Marie-Hélène Gervais, Floriane Vachon and Charlotte Allard
Seamstresses

Hugue Auguste
Costume Intern

Charlie Loup Turcot (Création et production, 2020)
Eco Project Manager

Réjean Forget
Hair Styling Consultant

Florence Cornet
Makeup Coach

Margarita Brodie (Set and Costume Design, 2020)
Patina Consultant

Iohseriio Polson
Bone Treatment Consultant

Ainsley Meloche
Beading Specialist

Julie Caron
Millinery Coach

Floriane Vachon
Head Dresser

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Elizabeth Koubena.

ANTIGONICK is presented by special arrangement with United Talent Agency.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The land on which we are gathered has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. It is part of the traditional unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka, whose rich cultural heritage continues to teach us that respect, dialogue and peace are pillars of democratic governance.

Antigonick Company Call to Action

In the spirit of solidarity with the urban Indigenous community, we invite you to donate, if you have the capacity, to Montreal’s Native Friendship Centre. In the spirit of solidarity with Indigenous peoples on stolen and colonially occupied territory beyond Turtle Island, we also invite you to donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.

MTL Native Friendship Centre

PCRF

Antigonick

From December 12th to 16th, 2023