Word: haemon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Donald F. Tovey said in a quite different context, "Nothing in human life and history is much more thrilling or of more ancient and universal experience than the antithesis of the individual and the crowd." It was Sophocles, too, who had Antigone affianced to Creon's son Haemon. Other changes, too, were rung in antiquity. For instance, in Euripides' Antigone, of which only parts survive, a tragic outcome was avoided through the outlandish intercession of the god Dionysus, and, incredibly, Antigone and Haemon were happily married. So a strong tradition of artistic license existed from the beginning...
Towards the end of the play, when Antigone is in a prison cell and attempts to dictate a letter for Haemon, we are deeply moved by her momentary human lapse, "I don't even know what I'm dying for." Here Miss Tucci loses her poise and runs about the enclosure like a caged bird in panic. But when she finally exits to her death, she knows...yes, she knows...
...been dressed in a blue blazer and grey flannels. When he realizes he is not winning and that more drastic tactics are needed, he doffs his blazer and carries on the fight in sweater and shirtsleeves. In the end he loses not only Antigone, but also his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice. Now he is alone, and has only the living death of a cabinet meeting to look forward to. It is a touching moment when he tells his little page, winningly played by Billy Partello, "Never grow up if you can help...
Anthony Mainionis' Haemon is adequate but somewhat colorless. Marian Hailey manages sufficiently to convey the weak-willed and vacillating Ismene--"infirm of purpose," to use Lady Macbeth's taunt. Antigones are rare, but Ismenes are a dime a dozen. Jane Farnol brings a good deal of warmth to the role of Antigone's devoted and solicitous old nurse. Richard Castellano, Edward Rutney, and Garry Mitchell, dressed in blue uniforms with red stripes, are fine as the three guards, who represent the majority of society; they are part of Creon's "featherheaded rabble." They are hard-drinking, vulgar-tongued, card-playing...
...world it is the blackguards, or at least the politically committed, who ultimately survive. And, as the play develops, the survival of Creon--who capitulates to corruption so that he can "introduce a little order into this absurd kingdom"--becomes increasingly more interesting than the deaths of Antigone and Haemon...