« Many things are terrible, but of all the most terrible is man. » Sophocles
Antigone’s gesture – throwing a handful of earth on the body of her brother, who was denied burial by King Creon – contains the very essence of the theatrical act: repairing the past through an action in the present. What form might this performative act, which connects the living to the dead, take today? How to reconstruct what the law of the state has broken? Antigone, conceived with artists in exile or who have lived the experience of migration, proposes to actualise this antagonistic and necessary act, opposing the government of men to obedience to the values of the Earth.
At a time of “solidarity crime”, identity tensions and the fantasy of a demographic “great replacement”, we feel it is imperative to remind ourselves of these universal laws based on ethics and human rights. Sophocles’ play will provide an opportunity to tackle some urgent questions: what does it really mean to be a community? What pact binds human beings together, and what is the limit that this pact cannot cross? Above all, can these bonds exist without being nourished by spiritual energies?
ANTIGONE
Based on Antigone by Sophocles
Translation Irène Bonnaud and Malika Hammou
Adapted and directed by Luca Giacomoni
With Tatiana Grishko, Yadulllah Mousawi, Wabinlé Nabié, Loick Ngoukou, Arman Saribekyan, Sultan Ulutas Alopé and Akiko Veaux
Dramaturgy Linda Souakria
Assistant director Sarah Brunel
Puppet creation Sébastien Puech
Materials, objects, costumes Jule Japhet
Consultant refugee camps Filippo Furri
Production Centre de recherche philosophique et théâtrale Hagia Sophia / In coproduction with the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, La Nef, Artavism, Fondation Humanités, Digital et Numérique, Fondation La Poste, City of Paris, Région Ile-de France and Refugee Week Malta / With the support of the Théâtre du Châtelet, the CENTQUATRE Paris, the CASP, Hangar Teatri, the Agency for Artists in Exile, France Terre d’asile and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
