Antigone [on strike], Park Theatre, stage review: ‘An uneven, if innovative, production’

Since ancient times, the ambiguous power of public opinion has fascinated audiences.

Should the views of citizens be the force driving society’s decisions? Or are the public’s attitudes so easily manipulated that they must take second place to the basic rights of all?

Sophocles’s mediation on liberties and duties produced Antigone; now the Park Theatre is staging a modern-day reimagining of the classic tragedy, developed by writer and director Alexander Raptotasios through discussions at schools in East London.

Antigone [on strike] features Antiya (played by Hiba Medina), who stages a hunger strike in support of her sister Esmeh (Hanna Khogali), an ‘ISIS bride’ who has lost UK citizenship due to her involvement with Iraqi jihadis.

Antiya’s boyfriend, human rights activist Eammon (Ali Hadji-Heshmati), also happens to be the son of ambitious Home Secretary Creighton (Phil Cheadle).

The politician is refusing to meet Antiya’s demands and is instead being led by his spin doctor muse (Sorcha Brooks) who feeds him a steady drip of polling results.

How the drama unfolds depends, we are told, on ‘votes’ cast during the course of the play by the audience, who are given keypads and asked to answer a series of questions about morality, values, and public affairs.

The results of these ‘instant polls’ are periodically flashed up on a screen and apparently help determine what happens next.

Using the audience as chorus has unclear benefits for the pacing of the drama, however.

The action (in the version under review) takes a while to get going, as it is overly freighted with weighty messages to the detriment of storyline.

The early part of the play feels like a cross between a piece of social science research and an especially vituperative edition of Question Time.

Underlying the esoteric debates about majoritarianism and rights that skid across the graph-heavy surface is an age-old tension between public morality and personal family bonds.

No stranger to the ancient Greeks, this tension saves the play as the action picks up in the final scenes.

An engaging performance by Hadji-Heshmati also helps to carry what is otherwise an uneven, if innovative, production.

Antigone [on strike] runs until 22 February at Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, N4 3JP.

parktheatre.co.uk