Do you know what a gnu looks like? It’s one of several animals described as “looking like it was made by a committee”.
SATE/ERA’s Antigone: Requiem per Patriarchus escapes that problem, despite being a production of the classic that’s gone through several layers of the creation process. It began as a playwriting project at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, MO, under the auspies of Lucy Cashion and Rachel Tibbetts working for PPA, Prison Performing Arts. Those results were then taken to a St. Louis University Theatre creative team, where Cashion is an assistant professor, and more work was done. The play was staged there, and then taken back to WERDCC to be performed at that facility by the SLU group. A few months later the Vandalia Women’s Theatre did its own production. And now, more than a year after that, we have the results of that script re-structured by the SATE and ERA groups, including the original script, plus adaptations of the original text by, among others, Bertold Brecht and Anne Carson and for a soupcon of irony, poetry by Dorothy Parker and some transcripted dialogue from the Brett Cavanaugh hearing. It does not resemble a gnu.
Yes, it is something of a mish-mosh. But it works. It’s not a tidy, traditional show – there’s some choreography, a little music, some stand-up comedy and a fair amount of what would be over-the-top acting were it not for the fact that this is a classic Greek tragedy, and if that’s not dramatic, then what on earth would be? Yes, indeed, it works.
It’s an all-female cast, with, as far as I could figure out, all of them playing Antigone at one point or another. The play opens casually, with the cast chatting with audience members. We find they’re inmates discussing how prison is like Hades. From there, things really take off. The pace is often rapid, but at other times, there’s literally (deliberate) slow motion. The ensemble is Taleesha Caturah, Laura Hulsey, Miranda Jagels-Felix, Natasha Toro, Ellie Schwetye and Victoria Thomas. A particular tip of the hat to Schwetye, who has perfected the elbow-angled attitude-filled holding of a cigarette, something she’s used to great effect in other work as well. Marcy Wiegert is our drummer, providing emphasis and background music.
Cashion, who directed the play, did the very impressive scenic design and Erik Kuhn’s lights add to the atmo. Liz Henning did the costumes. But there’s one unfortunate thing about the show. It’s at The Chapel, which just swallows sound. Cashion did the sound design herself, but I’m not sure this is a solvable problem. I’ve sat pretty much everywhere in the room – this is, so to speak, a black box theatre, so stages and seating vary show to show – and dialogue inevitably gets lost. It’s a shame, because there’s some pretty funny stuff in the middle of the terrible tragedy of the story. One side of the audience would be laughing and the other sides might not be. When we can get this worked out, it’ll be great; it’s a beautiful space so fitting for many shows. But Cashion overall has done a masterful job with this on many levels.
It’s not your grandfather’s Antigone, but he would probably still enjoy this, too.
Antigone: Requiem per Patriarchus
through August 31
SATE/ERA
The Chapel
6238 Alexander Dr, off Skinker