ANTIGONE: DESIGN QUESTION

Outline your set design for Antigone and explain how it would help a present-day audience to understand the play s themes and atmosphere.

Outline your set design for Antigone and explain how it would help a present-day audience to understand the play s themes and atmosphere.

My design would be set on a proscenium arch stage with a large apron. I want to a similar feel to the traditional greek amphitheatre, but in a modern setting, so the action on the stage will be raised, as if on the proskenion and the thrust therefore at a lower level like the orchestra. I think this will aid an audience in seeing how the chorus are sometimes onlookers who make judgements, separate from the action (as they use the thrust space to watch the characters on the stage space.)

Outline your set design for Antigone and explain how it would help a present-day audience to understand the play s themes and atmosphere.

Upstage I would imitate the skene by having a palace building with an imposing wooden door. The building would be damaged, one pillar collapsed and three standing upright. Behind this, would hang a painted backdrop with ancient Greek city and the mountains beyond. This would help explain the atmosphere of war and the mountains and buildings give a focal point for Creon to refer, when he talks of the cities enemies, as if he is frightened of what happens beyond the palace walls.

 Despite the damage to the palace, regal banners, would be draped from its low roof, suggesting that Creon is trying to assert his status and give the impression he is still in control of the war torn country. The banners would be a rich red, with a white circle and black royal emblem within them. A low set of steps would lead up to the palace door and when Creon speaks his judgements to the chorus, he would stand, framed by the banners on the steps, looking like a dictator speaking to his people.

Either side of the palace, running down to the wings would be a wall, with an ornate metal gate stage left and right. This gate would again show that Creon is trapping himself inside his palace, hiding from the outside world, and the action of the guards locking it after bring Antigone and Ismene in to be confronted by the king, give the feel of a prison, explaining to a modern audience that the world of the play is like a police state and Creon is treating Antigone like a terrorist he is interrogating.

 The wall and gate would be used by Haemon, he would bring his father to the gate, indicating he should look through it when explaining about the opinions of people in the city, gesturing to the city over the wall, his father shunning this and sheltering in the overhanging roof of his palace, as if hiding from the people, here the stage design again help explain the them of paranoia and the idea of a leader who won t listen. The gate would also be used by Antigone in the her rage against Creon, gripping it and shaking it furiously, creating a sound much bigger than herself, creating an atmosphere of danger and alarm, showing that despite her female powerlessness she is a real threat to Creon s dominance.

 The imposing wooden door would be painted in a bold royal blue colour with a large golden door knocker. The columns would be imposing and ornately carved giving a sense of power. Even though one is damaged they still dwarf Antigone when she is thrown on stage, Creon looks down on her from the steps and she looks tiny in comparison to the palace and its king, helping the audience understand the theme of the powerless individual, the female alone in a male dominated world, trying to take on a battle she is doomed to lose from the start.

 The thrust element of the stage could be separated from the main action by lighting when the chorus dance their odes and prayers. The proscenium arch will fall into darkness and less natural, more expressive lighting will capture the more spiritual or philosophical nature of the chorus reflections on the action. For example, during the first Ode to man the thrust will be bathed in warm yellow light during the chorus positive talk about humanity, cold blue lighting as they speak about man s battle against the elements and a firey, angry red as they discuss war. This will help an audience understand how their words are a comment on the action and how also whilst they are on stage, time passes in the world of the play.

Antigone example questions

How would you use the technical facilities available in a modern theatre to enhance your production of antigone and what effects would you want to create fro your audience?

Technical facilities
Technical Facilites Spotlight Footlight Floodlight Fresnel Follow-spot Gobo Image or film projection Recorded sound effects Live music Pyrotechnics Smoke machines/dry ice Flown scenery Trucked scenery Hydraulic platforms Revolve Don t forget (details) Possible EFFECTS: Intensity of light Direction of light Colour of light (be precise) Speed of lighting state changes

Passage of time Sense of period Creation of location Sense of style/genre Where and how are sound Sense of mood and effects amplified (direction atmosphere Symbolic effect, portraying of sound) meaning Colour, shape, scale, texture in relation to all visual elements.