7. Stagecraft

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the stagecraft of the play, focusing in particular on the spectacular scene at the end of the play where Creon carries on the body of his son, Haemon, as well as on the two messenger speeches that describe the three suicides in the play.

Course

In this course, Professor Edith Hall (King’s College, London) explores Sophocles’ great tragedy, Antigone. Having situated the play in its historical and geographical context, we spend some time introducing the key characters in the play—the two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, their uncle (and ruler of Thebes) Creon, and his son, Haemon. After that, we focus on some of the key themes in the play—politics, ethics and gender—before ending with a brief discussion on the staging of the play.

Lecturer

Since being awarded the Hellenic Foundation Prize for her Oxford doctorate (1988), Edith has held posts at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and London Universities. She has published twenty books. She is Co-Founder and Consultant Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek & Roman Drama at Oxford and Chairman of the Gilbert Murray Trust. She has won funding for research from the AHRB, the AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, and has just been awarded a Humboldt Research Prize. She appears regularly on BBC Radio, and has acted as consultant to professional productions of ancient drama at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Northern Broadsides, Theaterkombinat and other professional companies.