Antigone 2024: 2

Antigone: Reimagined

A Director’s Outline: Dialogue, Part 2

Scene III, lines 583-598

Hello everybody my name is ISometimesUnderstandInstructions (ISUI), and welcome back to Antigone: Reimagined, AKA Antigone 2024, AKA look at me now, Ms. AlwaysUnderstander, look at how amazing I am doing with this new job. Look at how much better I’m doing without you. Anyway, we are just getting back into it, though we are skipping a couple of what are essentially monologues – were they talking to each other or themselves – and now Choragos, the ever pragmatic centrist, attempts to reconcile(?) their arguments.

CHORAGOS:

I suggest you listen to him, King.

If he speaks sense.

And likewise, Haimon, you must listen to your father –

You both make fair points.   [The original dialogue here was And you, Haimon, Must listen to your father. -Both speak well. Unfortunately, that kind of praise is so #441BC, and I’ve brought in a useful phrase used by debate moderators everywhere.]

CREON:

What? You think a man of my age and experience   [Creon approaches Haimon. Angrily. The seething kind of anger – head tilted down, V-brows.]

Ought to get lectured by a boy?   [Ought to is timeless. Good job, me.]

HAIMON:

If I’m wrong – I’m wrong.

But,  [Delivered with a resolution not matching – but mimicking – his father’s. He believes every word he says, he knows the difference in power between the two, but he delivers these lines with that weight in mind.]

If what I say is right – what’s age got to do with anything? [I have been thinking about dropping a Facts in one of Haimon’s lines, but my assistant slapped the clipboard out my hand the last time I brought it up.]

CREON:

You’re standing up for a terrorist.   [We’re dumbing down the audience and casting a wider net. Anarchist? PBS Channel. Terrorist?Fox News, baby.]

HAIMON:

I don’t pay respect to criminals. [Haimon is gaining more confidence here.]

CREON:

Then is she not a criminal?    [His speech slows, understanding the depth of his son’s resolve. Stubborn man respects stubbornness. #MyAssistantHasAPsychologyDegree]

HAIMON:

Is the City going to teach me how to govern?

CREON:

And is the City going to teach me how to govern?     [Very heavy work in progress with these two lines

HAIMON:

Ah. Who’s talking like a boy now?

CREON:

My voice is the one voice giving orders in this City!     [Not broken don’t fix it!]

HAIMON:

It’s no city under command of one voice.        [The essence of this line goes hard. But how can I make it go the hardest? Is there enough slang?]

CREON:

The State is the King!

HAIMON:

Yes, if the State is a desert.      [Delivered with poise that Haimon has worked up to up until, now into a pause. These last two lines I find crucial to the play’s themes, so crucial that I left them intact.]

And that’s it for this update, everyone. I took the suggestions you had in mind, and though I couldn’t find an opportunity to sneak in a facts or direct Haimon to, err, mew at his father, I appreciate the support all you #SometimesUnderstanders are giving me. It means a lot to me, and it helps keep me going. In this cold, lonely world. #Antigone2024