William Brookes School Blog

“What a legacy”, says Antigone to her sister, Ismene, at the beginning of this play, reflecting on the tragedy of their family’s history.

With both parents dead, after discovering that their children had been the result of an incestuous union, and both brothers dead, fighting each other for control of Thebes, all the surviving sisters have left is each other. Now, even that relationship is threatened as each weighs up whether it is better to obey the laws of the land or the laws of the gods.

Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ is the third play in the Theban trilogy about Oedipus and his family. Although written nearly two and a half thousand years ago in a very different time and culture from our own, the play has a very real relevance for us here and now, asking us the question: how far would you go for your beliefs?

Antigone will run for two nights - Wednesday, 20th and Thursday 21st January at 7.30 pm. Admission is £5 and £4 concessions.

A famous political figure once played a character from Antigone whilst imprisoned in the 60s. Anyone know who that was and which character they played?

Watch this space for a Year 8 student’s review of the play.

Well here it is and today it’s read one read another free:

I thought that the actors and actresses were very talented because there was a lot of speech but they hardly ever forgot their lines and they kept in time with each other when they did a few sentences together. Also, the ones who had to swear were very brave because they didn’t laugh, get embarassed or look away.

I thought the play itself was very sad, due to everyone dying a terrible death, but I only thought this because all of the performers expressed their emotions very well.

I could really feel the love Antigone had for her dead brother and how Antigone’s fiancé feels when he finds out that his future wife has been sent to her death by his own father, and how that messenger person must have felt when he was told that if he didn’t find the betrayer then he would be killed.

I would like to tell all of the performers and directors that it was a brilliant show. Well done – I give it a 10/10

Tara M.

The play was fantastic! It had dance routines, clever acting and much more! The start was dramatic - with loud booming music and flickering lights, it made a very big impact.

The storyline was amazing but very sad. It was all about the law against the burial of one of Antigone’s two brothers. The noble one was allowed to be buried but the traitor had to be left to rot outside. Antigone went against this law, so she was sentenced to death. She was locked up in an old shack on the top of a moor. She couldn’t take it any longer, so she hung herself. This was done on a clever screen with a light behind it, so the actors appeared as shadows. This meant that the scene could be more detailed and the hanging could be even more detailed.

I’m sure everybody in the audience was on the edge to find out what would happen next, but we soon found out. There was a chain reaction of suicides. First Antigone’s fiancé, then the fiancés mother (the Emperor’s wife), then the Emperor himself. It really was the ultimate tragedy.

It was so amazingly put together and must have took ages to learn all the lines and perform them as well as they did.

Truly a fantastic performance! Well done to all the actors in it and everyone else who was involved!

Zach J.