Director’s note for the Blue Slipper Theatre production of Seamus Heaney’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, The Burial at Thebes:

Welcome to Thebes! Our story was originally written by Sophocles nearly 2500 years ago. And yet, it feels as vital and timely today as it did then – especially in the hands of one of Ireland’s greatest poets, Seamus Heaney.

Our story picks up after the events of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus and his wife/mother Jocasta had two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. After Oedipus’ exile and death, the two brothers agreed to share the kingship of Thebes, alternating each year, but after the first year, Eteocles refused to abdicate. Polynices went to Argos and raised an army to try to defeat his brother and take the throne. The brothers killed each other in battle and their uncle Creon claimed the throne. This is where our play begins.

But why is this story still so vital and timely? When Sophocles wrote it, the democracy of Athens was at risk of being overthrown by authoritarian forces. With Antigone, he was speaking directly to that threat. In the play, the natural law of the people is upended by the dictates of a would-be despot, mirroring our current struggles between democratic ideals and authoritarian power, between natural morality and political injustice, between liberty and tyranny.

Shakespeare tells us that the purpose of theatre is to “hold the mirror up to nature.” Let’s take a close look and decide if we like what we see, or if we, like Antigone, will stand up and say, “No.”