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The Forum: Antigone: A drama of defiance

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Antigone and the body of Polynices (Artist Lachmann, credit - The Print Collector/GettyImages )

10/01/2019 GMT

Antigone: A drama of defiance

BBC World Service - The Forum, Antigone: A drama of defiance

The classic play from Ancient Greece about civil disobedience

The Ancient Greek tragedy about the clash of loyalties between family and state.  Joining Rajan Datar are Lydia Koniordou, Olivier Py, Mohammad Al-Attar and Rosie Wyles.

The play Antigone by the Greek playwright Sophocles was written almost 2,500 years ago, but to this day it is believed to be the most performed play- anywhere in the world. It tells the story of Antigone, a girl who ends up challenging the power of the ruler of Thebes, in a devastating battle of wills that pits family duty against the law of the state. So why does this story of civil disobedience still speak to people, and how was it originally received by its very first audience in Ancient Athens in the 5th century BCE? Joining Rajan Datar to discuss Antigone and its later modern interpretations are the acclaimed actor, director and former Greek Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou, the theatre director Olivier Py who staged Antigone with male prisoners at this year’s Avignon Theatre Festival in France, the Syrian playwright Mohammad Al Attar who’s the author of a new adaptation of Antigone about Syrian women refugees, and Dr Rosie Wyles, Lecturer in Classical History at the University of Kent, and author of “Costume in Greek Tragedy”.

Image: Antiogne and the body of Polynices (Artist: Lachmann. Credit: Print Collector/Getty Images)

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