'Against Antigone': a tragedy without 'pathos'

The bottles of Fanta lemon on the tables at the usual refreshment offered by the Lliure after premieres were very suitable for this school-like proposal well conducted by an empathetic Olga Onrubia, chorus leader and guide of an entertaining look at Sophocles' classic but lacking the necessary pathos. It is a proposal that Andrea Jiménez's direction has populated with occurrences with little dramatic justification, such as replacing the old blind Tiresias with a girl heir to his power of prediction, reducing the character of Eurydice to nothing, or treating an Ismene dressed by her worst enemy as an actress who doesn't know what play she's in.

The performance begins with the curtain down, with the chorus leader giving pedagogical explanations about the play and the author with a desire to make people laugh; trying to make sense of the title (without succeeding), reiterating that tragedy is not the opposite of comedy (well, of course!) but above all selecting volunteers from the audience to form part of the chorus of the tragedy and who will spend the performance on stage. A debatable idea that contributes almost nothing to the proposal, as it makes them wander like disoriented tourists through the ruins of Tarragona and, depending on how, spoils the most successful scenes, such as the debate between a good Antigone (Júlia Truyol) and a Creon (Xavi Sáez) more credible in his authoritarianism than in the demonstration of the misfortune with which the play concludes.

surely acceptable for those who have never seen it nor know it.

In the end, therefore, half an hour of introduction and an hour and a quarter of a didactic Antigone probably acceptable for those who have neither seen it nor know it.