Week 16: Classwork

Wednesday

After the previous weeks of focusing on the Creon and Antigone scene, we decided to move onto the first scenes between Antigone and the nurse and also the following scene between Antigone and her sister, Ismene.

To open the scene with the nurse, we wanted to highlight the meta theatre elements so she was going to be the last person onstage and as she would be looking very confused as to why everybody had gone offstage and then she would realize what was going on and so would start to get into her character. I think that this is very affective towards the audience as it would add a funny element before the play begins and starts to take a serious edge.

We wanted the nurse scene to be quite light and playful so that there would be a bigger juxtaposition between this scene and the next one. We made sure that there was a light atmosphere by making the nurse and Antigone's interaction quite funny and having Antigone slightly mock the nurse as the nurse overreacts to the idea of antigone going out in the morning.

The staging of the scene with the nurse begins quite separate with each character on either side of the stage. This symbolizes the distance that Antigone has put between herself and the nurse by going out and not telling her what she was doing. But as the scene progresses, we see the nurse reminiscing about her past and trying to get Antigone to tell her where she's been which brings them closer in both their relationship and staging. Ending the scene, we see the nurse sat on the chair with Antigone knelt beside her saying her last line "...and I mustn't be little today."  Which shows the relationship between the two as the nurse has brought Antigone up from being little and she values her opinion because she is one of the people that she wants to have a last moment with before she completely immerses herself into burying her brother and having that as the only thing in her mind. I feel that Antigone, even though she is very stubborn, actually cares for certain people like Ismene and the nurse as they have been beside Antigone as she has grown as a person.

After exploring the Nurse scene we moved onto the Ismene scene. I was thinking about the type of relationship that these two sisters would have and I came to the conclusion that they would be very close as we find out that they had both been planning on burying their brother but Antigone, knowing her sister and what she would say, had gone out and already started as she would have expected ismene to rethink their decision and end up not wanting to participate.

Here is the scene that we came up with:

(Link)

During this scene we see the evolution of the sisters relationship through the proxemics as they begin close enough for Antigone to rest her head on Ismene's leg and as the scene quickly picks up, we see the teasing of Antigone being pushed aside by Ismenes need to deal with the matter at hand, burying their brother. This completely changes the scenes atmosphere at this point as the matter that is being discussed becomes more serious with more serious consequences. At the end of the scene they end up  in opposite positions on stage with Antigone sat in the chair, dismissing Ismene and Ismene standing towards the door.

In the first two scenes we already begin to witness Antigone slowing saying her goodbyes to her family and her beginning to create distance between herself and others so that when she dies, it may soften the blow slightly. I think that Antigone uses these scenes to remind herself of the times that she has had with these other characters and take them to her grave with her.