Antigone by Sophocles (1984 TV) Juliet Stevenson (part 9/11)

Go here to see Bernard Hill's superb Duke of York in Shakespeare's Henry VI, pt 3 --the big scene and death by Margaret:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x3CmMX8O-s

go here to see John Gielgud's Teiresias in Oedipus the King:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XYeuZaQg0M

click on link below to playlist of all 11 parts of this "Antigone":
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5321CB5DC1092F31

Sophocles' Theban Plays, directed and translated by Don Taylor for this production--go here to see Taylor's "Oedipus Rex":
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=422B4AD5E82BE89A

and here to view "Oedipus at Colonus":
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8FE646D5B08C3342

to see Irene Papas as Antigone (1961 film), go here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E1DCC63DB14EC61D

Cast:

John Gielgud ...Teiresias
John Shrapnel ... Creon

Bernard Hill ... Messenger
Paul Russell ... Boy
Rosalie Crutchley ... Eurydice

Patrick Barr ... Chorus
Paul Daneman ... Chorus
Donald Eccles ... Chorus
Robert Eddison ... Chorus
Patrick Godfrey ... Chorus
Ewan Hooper ... Chorus
Peter Jeffrey ... Chorus
Noel Johnson ... Chorus
Robert Lang ... Chorus
John Ringham ... Chorus
Frederick Treves ... Chorus
John Woodnutt ... Chorus

Produced by...Louis Marks
Original Music by ....Derek Bourgeois
Film Editing by ...Peter Reason
Production Design by ...David Myerscough-Jones
Costume Design by ...Jane Hudson
Geoffrey Lewis .... classical advisor

John Churton Collins:

Nothing can illustrate more strikingly the real
complexity which underlies and is involved in the
apparent simplicity of the art of Sophocles than
the ethics of this drama. The central purpose is
obviously the relation of the law which has its
sanction in political authority and the law which
has its sanction in the private conscience, the
relation of the obligations imposed on human
beings as citizens and members of the state, and
the obligations imposed on them in the home and
as members of families. And both these laws
presenting themselves in their most crucial form
are in direct collision.

Creon was perfectly justified
in issuing the edict which deprived Polyneices
of his funeral rites. The young man had fallen in
the act of committing the most heinous crime of
which a citizen could be guilty, and Creon, as the
responsible head of the state, very naturally supposed
that exemplary punishment was the culprit's
rightful due. The decree issued with its annexed
penalty became law, and as the law it was incumbent
on every citizen to obey it. In the case of
Antigone the other law presents itself at the same
crucial point.

No private obligation was more
sacred and more imperative in the eyes of the
Greeks than the duty she undertook, and which,
as the last of her race, Ismene excepted, she
could delegate to no one else. She had a right
to look upon it as a divine commission. She had
a right to assert that in defying Creon's edict she
was loyal to an unwritten law which had a higher
sanction than man's will. Up to this point, then,
both are in the right, and neither deserves punishment.

Had reason and right feeling ruled Creon,
he would have seen that Antigone was perfectly
justified in disobeying his edict: had reason ruled
Antigone, she would have seen that he was perfectly
justified in issuing it. It is not till the
interview with Teiresias that Creon transgresses
in act and is guilty of sin.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Sophocles
• John-Gielgud
• Antigone
• Αντιγόνη
• Creon
• Greek
• Theban
• Antigoni
• performing
• arts

[kaylanotebook]

i feel like slapping creon :D

[ErikTonning]

Eurydice: "We are bred to stoicism (!!) in this family." A few centuries off there. Wonderful acting, but what an annoying, clichéd, inaccurate, self-important, zeitgeisty, pathetic translation.

[shivanebangkok2008]

the chorus makes me laugh!!!

[Kirk00077]

At 6:00, did anyone else notice that guy blatantly doesn't know his lines?

[koenan1]

King Creon is a colorful character

[Tienzu1]

Creon changed his mind about the law out of fear of what the blind prophet said. That doesn't sound like a tragic hero to me.

[Tienzu1]

blind prophet 1 Creon 0

[sjsung]

and again at 6:57 lol

[sjsung]

6:10 guy on the top-left forgets his lines lol

[thnksmarter]

@ErikTonning By the very definition of stoicism, hows does that make Eurydice inaccurate in statement?

[jamesms4]

Creon just insulted a Prophet of the gods. He is so fucked & not in the fun way.