Photography: Laura Eastley
Oedipus + Antigonê
by Sophocles
Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald
Adapted and directed by Kelly Wilson
Music by Karlin Love
28-31 October, 2020, Earl Arts Centre, Launceston
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"Karlin Love’s original music transforms some of Sophocles’ choral odes into breathtaking moments of rare beauty. Kelly Wilson’s adaptation and artistic direction is full of discovery and she presents some bold statements in her interpretation. . . . Congratulations to Adaptivity Theatre Company for daring to stage these classic works, and for doing it at a time when audience numbers are reduced by social distancing and the smell of pandemic wafts through real life as much as in the plays." Jeff Hockley
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Cast:
JOCASTA, wife of Oedipus / Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janice Molineux
OEDIPUS, doctor and leader of Thebes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Taylor
CREONA, sister of Jocasta, mother of Haimon, career politician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Riley
ANTIGONÊ, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta / Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olivia Brodzinski
PERSONAL ASSISTANT, secretary for Creona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Phoebe Wheatley
ISMENÊ, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta / Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Melanie Grossman
Chorus / Understudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Naomi Leighton
SENTRY, a security guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lee Brient
HAIMON, son of Creona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nathaniel Wood
TEIRESIAS, a blind seer / CHAUFFEUR / Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aaron Beck
PROBATE LAWYER / Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robbie Bleakley
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Artistic/Technical Roles:
Adaptation and Artistic Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kelly Wilson
Original Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Karlin Love Stage Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kirsty Mangelsdorf
Fight Choreography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aaron Beck
Robbie Bleakley
Costuming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janice Molineux
Set Design and Painting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Wilson
Set and Props Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sean Wilson
Production Filming & Sound Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aaron Beck
Age and Special Effects Makeup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Grace Roberts
Lighting Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mark Smith
Lighting/Sound Operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sean Wilson
Promotional Photography & Filming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laura Eastley
Poster Design and Photography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tassou Amerikanos
Publicity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kelly Wilson
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Directorial Interpretation:
In this production, the narrative action, which originally took place in ancient Greece, is advanced to the year 2040. Thebes is now a modern city recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. King Oedipus has been transformed into a doctor who has been a compassionate and fair leader of Thebes since he arrived twenty years ago, when the perpetrator known as ‘The Sphinx’ played a major role in the spread of the virus that Oedipus eventually eradicated. In a desperate hope to maintain health and prosperity in their community, the Theban people have resumed their worship of the gods of ancient Greece. Jocasta assists her husband Oedipus in running a doctor’s surgery from an annex of their own home as they work to continue Thebes’ recovery.
However, it seems there has been another outbreak of plague: crops are failing, cattle are sick, babies are stillborn and people are dying from unknown causes. Oedipus calls upon the blind seer, Teiresias, to discover the cause of the pestilence and to determine what the gods would have them do in order to survive. When Teiresias finally meets with Oedipus, his prophesy sets in motion a series of events that will forever change the lives of his wife, Jocasta; his sister-in-law, Creona; his nephew, Haimon; and his children, Polyneicês, Eteoclês, Ismenê and Antigonê.
This production is notable in its reimagining of Oedipus as a doctor and its portrayal of Creon as a woman, known as Creona, played by the same actor in both Oedipus and Antigonê. The audience witnesses the agony that befalls a well-meaning, yet naïve, doctor who assumes that the cause of his city’s current suffering has nothing to do with himself. Likewise, Creona, a career politician, leads Thebes with the best of intentions, but her decisions and actions demonstrate the pride and misplaced idealism that parallels some of the problems that plague politics today. As the result of these adaptations, the thematic content of the production produces a chilling modern significance.
Photography: Laura Eastley
Music Composer
Karlin Love is a composer and performer based in Tasmania. In 1989 Karlin moved from the USA to Australia to take the woodwind lecturer position at the University of Tasmania in Launceston where she taught clarinet, saxophone, theory, composition and improvisation until 1997, and composition and music technology for the University’s Faculty of Education and TAFE Tasmania until 2010. She is now a free-lance composer, performer, and teacher, and continues to work with senior secondary students. Most of Karlin’s composition is for acoustic instruments such as lute, guitar, clarinet, or symphonic winds. Frequently writing for local amateur performers, her works extend and expand traditional sound worlds. She has worked extensively with the instruments of leather sculptor, the late Garry Greenwood, developing their performance potential with The Chordwainers quartet and the Tasmanian Leather Orchestra of eager local musicians. Her works have been performed in Europe, the UK, USA, New Zealand, and China, and recorded by Australian professional and amateur ensembles. Karlin is a fully represented composer with the Australian Music Centre. She was a recipient of a Dombrovskis Wilderness Residency in 1998, a Cataract Gorge residency in 2002, AIR (Arts Tasmania) Schools residency in 2016 and was the Australian Society for Music Education composer-in-residence in 2009.
