Antigone: Sophocles

Description

When Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone's unruly brother, Antigone's anger quickly turns to defiance. Creon condemns her to a torturous death: she's to be buried alive. Acclaimed playwright Roy Williams takes Sophocles' play and, by placing it into a contemporary setting, brings this classic tale vividly to life. A timeless story about loyalty and truth, about how we make meaning out of life and death, and what in the end really does matter. Roy Williams's adaptation of Antigone received its world premiere on 19 September at Derby Theatre, in a co-production between Pilot Theatre, Derby Theatre and Theatre Royal, Stratford East, before going on a national tour.

Roy Williams, OBE, worked as an actor before turning to writing full-time in 1990. He graduated from Rose Bruford in 1995 with a first class BA Hons degree in Writing and participated in the 1997 Carlton Television screenwriter's course. The No Boys Cricket Club (1996) won him nominations for the TAPS Writer of the Year Award 1996 and for New Writer of the Year Award 1996 by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. He was the first recipient of the Alfred Fagon Award 1997 for Starstruck (1998), which also won the 31st John Whiting Award and the EMMA Award 1999. Lift Off (1999) was the joint-winner of the George Devine Award 2000. His other plays include Night and Day (1996); Josie's Boys (1996); Souls (1999); Local Boy (2000); The Gift (2000); Clubland (Royal Court, 2001), winner of the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for the Most Promising Playwright; Fallout (2003); Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (2002), Little Sweet Thing (2005), Slow Time (2005), Days of Significance (2007), Absolute Beginners (2007), Joe Guy (2007), Baby Girl (2007), Out of the Fog (2007), There's Only One Wayne Matthews (2007), Category B (2009),Sucker Punch (2010), adaptation of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (2012), Advice for the Young At Heart (2013) and Kingston 14 (2014). He was awarded the OBE for Services to Drama in the 2008 Birthday Honours List.

Roy Williams's adaptation of the Greek classic is riotously comic and makes a strong case for its contemporary parallels * Guardian * Williams certainly has a knack of producing mots justes which resonate with his audiences . . . * British Theatre Guide * Williams's decision to relocate the action within contemporary street culture has much to recommend it. . . . There's no playwright better versed in the Urban Dictionary than Williams . . . * Guardian * The writing is incandescent with anger, urgency and wit . . . Antigone's flames may flicker but at its blazing best this is incendiary. * The Times * Roy Williams shoves Sophocles's tragedy into the boot of his car, then dumps it in the midst of a lawless gangland war, and his adaptation has a thriller's force: it's a play of tense ethical choices. * Sunday Times * Roy Williams's fresh take on Sophocles's tragedy is pacy and streetwise. . . . Williams captures the tribalism of the criminal underworld and neatly conveys Sophocles's interest in honour, loyalty and revenge. * Evening Standard * At its core, Williams' transposition works well. . . . it demonstrates vividly that the great classical plays are anything but remote, that the profound questions at their core about human behaviour are still with us - in this case, that revenge, summary justice and unbending codes of honour may seem to offer answers but in fact simply perpetuate grief. * Financial Times * It's a hot-blooded, spunky adaptation * Time Out London *