Neither Mr. Google nor, unfortunately, the website of the German section of the National Theater Radu Stanka of Sibiu have not too generously provided me with the necessary information about Thomas Keck, the author of the work Antigone. Requiem. I only managed to find out that the writer is of Austrian origin, that he is relatively young (born in 1986), that he has studies at the Faculty of Philosophy (this is also reflected in the content of the lines), obtained in his homeland, supplemented by those in the field graduated from theater in Berlin.

Thomas Keck did not follow the example of his older and more famous colleague Jean Giraud, who in 1929 wrote a play called Amphitryon’38, the number in the title is meant to indicate that said entry will be the thirty-eighth revision of the well-known ancient myth. Some caution may also have intervened in the present case, because apparently expert researchers on the subject have provided fairly consistent evidence that Giralduk’s count was rather capricious.

One way or another, there is no doubt that Thomas Coke went through all the critical moments of Greek tragedy with exemplary thoroughness. He reformulated all her great themes. The story is told of Antigone’s rebellion against Creon’s decision not to allow a dissident brother to be buried, while Eteocles was reserved for a lavish funeral. Antigone disobeys the orders of the Citadel’s new master, instead respecting tradition and blood ties. Oedipus’s daughter’s disobedience provokes Creon’s anger, Antigone’s death sentence, and later the merciless punishment of the one who disregarded the old rules. Thus the prophecy of Tiresias is fulfilled.

Proving a better understanding of the concept of imitation (as it was called a long time ago, in the times of classicism) or to view, as it is called today, Thomas Köck brings everything into the present. He places the tragedy in postmodern Europe, where nothing is certain anymore, everything is subject to rewriting, rethinking, reformulating in a new form. Laws, morals, values ​​were reformulated, recalibrated. At the same time, the whole set of rules seems to have become even tougher, more inexorable. The new Creon prevails over these new norms, supposedly adapted to the new time, in whose behavior one can find all the traits of a dictator. This gives rise to the so-called flexibility, which is specific to today’s time. In fact, the new tyrant resorts to the resources of a new wooden language to justify, argue, and explain his atrocities. Creon imitates pluralism, dialogue, asks for words, waits for the approval of the community, but, further, the law and its implementation mean the prerogative of a single voice.

Europe, where the action takes place Antigone, Requiem he knew all the evils of history, including all the great evils of the 20th century (at one point the chorus warns We don’t want any more death camps!) and, nevertheless, as we learn from the first lines, the measure was interrupted again. Antigone about Thomas Keck, which is really a tragedy without measure. And so it happens that the dead storm the borders of Europe, the dead, even in sacks, are everywhere, and the hymns of the end have long passed beyond the walls of the Citadel.

Great merit goes to the performance staged by Florin Vidamsky in the German section of the National Theater Radu Stanka from Sibiuresides in his condition, suggested by a cry of alarm. with consciousness The play is performed with the audience sitting on tour, on an empty stage, the emptiness of space is perfectly compensated by the excellent video mapping created by Zholt Bordosh. And this is how we feel, simple spectators, struck by the waves of the sea, which carry with them more and more corpses, we receive warnings and fears from the increasingly abrupt singing of the choir (Teodora Sandu, Fabiola Petri, Daniel Plier, Emeke Boldisar, Yannick Becker, Benedict Hefner, Johanna Adam, Gian Ros Zimmermann, Anke Parousel, Ana Tiepak, Patrick Ibrescu, Yannick Salger, Eva Fracila), that we almost physically perceive the confrontation between Creon, mainly convincingly staged by Daniel Plier, and only the obviously fragile Antigone (played with the necessary intensity and involvement, without too many tears, by Theodore Sandu). We perceive the complex specificity of the relationship between Antigone and Ismene (many hints are contained in the image of the actress Fabiola Petri) or the ominous words of the Messenger (Emeke Boldisar). We vibrate over the tragedy of Eurydice (Johanna Adam). I also found the performance of young actors Yannick Becker (Hemon) and Gian Ross Zimmermann (Tiresias) excellent.

The intensity of the warning, which gives the performance its specificity, is also guaranteed by the volume of the sound space, which is created by the stage music and sound design created by Alex Halka. Edith Battingsrud Pedersen’s choreography with two peaks of pregnancy should also be noted. The death of Eurydice and the death of Creon, who became a victim of the dead.

Florin Widamski also had in mind the provision of a past-present passage. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro