Nancy Keystone's Antigone

"I am not the first sacrifice, nor the last."--from Brecht's Antigone

In a claustrophobic study lined with books, a frock-coated archivist busily chalks commentary about Antigone on two massive slates hanging from the study's walls. As he writes and comments, the play unfolds before him. But far from an amphitheatrical pageant in classical drag, this production is as much about the history of Sophocles' tragedy as it is an adaptation of the play.

Los Angeles director Nancy Keystone wants to view this tragedy of the young woman who stood up against tyrannical rule "through a historical filter, picking up traces of meanings accrued through many ages." In drawing attention to the contemporaneity and universality of Antigone's theme of personal conscience, Keystone weaves the words of other "outsider" voices into her text, from Anna Akhmatova to Patti Smith.

Keystone's play, which receives its world premiere in Portland this week, began life as a workshop production at The Actors' Gang Theater in Los Angeles. Keystone spoke with WW between rehearsals at Portland Center Stage.

Willamette Week: Why Antigone?

Nancy Keystone: I did my graduate thesis on Judith Malina's version of Brecht's Antigone for the Living Theater. Since then, I've become somewhat obsessed with the play's ideas and themes, and how other writers have taken up the story over the last 2,000 years.

Are there elements in this piece that you felt hadn't been fleshed out in other adaptations?

Ismene, Antigone's sister, was my first hook. She always disappears halfway through the play, and I've always wanted to know where she ends up. I also became intrigued by what the dead Polynices might have to say.

So you've given him many of the functions of the seer Tiresias.

Yes. During the first workshops in L.A., I saw the Archivist as Tiresias, but then Polynices' presence became stronger, and it suddenly made sense that he would spark the turning point for Creon in the play.

"[Antigone] is proud of her grief, she's jealous of it, for her grief is her love." --Kierkegaard

How did you come to create the Archivist?

He evolved from another obsession I have with the idea of "the witness," someone who records for the future. I was also intrigued by the 19th-century philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Hegel who were themselves obsessed with Antigone. My initial image was to have a group of frock-coated men recording the play, as these historical characters still hold the thread of the play's history. From that image came this lone figure.

"One sweet crime and two friends will rest side by side."

--from Cocteau's Antigone

What do you believe is Antigone's motivation for burying Polynices? Is it romantically rebellious, religiously inspired or, as Cocteau and Rotrou suggested, incestuous?

I'm interested by the idea of an incestuous bond, but it hasn't shown up in this piece. In Anouilh's Antigone she's death-obsessed, and there are elements of that here. But, primarily, she's driven by "religious" concerns. She truly believes that her brother will never find rest until his body is buried.

"The king of gods cares nothing for men's concerns." --A fragment from Accius' lost Antigone

On the theme of the individual voice against the state, what influence has your last production, The Akhmatova Project, had on this Antigone?

There's a different tone and impulse to Antigone. Akhmatova's life was the struggle for the individual soul to live in secret. Antigone hides nothing; all is public. Still, there are shared threads here. I've woven some of Akhmatova's The Requiem into this script.

"I am not ashamed to defy Thebes." --Antigone in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes

Keystone's production is, by far, the riskiest project undertaken by Chris Coleman at Portland Center Stage, and the most revolutionary. Keystone's production is as dependent on stylized, ritualized movement as it is on text, and so she has cast carefully. The casting of two members of Portland's Sowelu company, Kelly Tallent as Ismene and Chris Harder as Polynices, suggests that the most talented artists in this city will finally be given a larger audience.

Former Portlander Susan Mason is an Ibsen scholar teaching in L.A., and serves on the board of The Actors' Gang. "There is a lyrical simplicity to Keystone's work," Mason told Willamette Week. "She has a pronounced European aesthetic, very un-self-conscious. Keystone's work will bring people to Portland. I'm certainly coming, and I know others who will be making the trip. It's important work, and it's certain to have an impact on Portland."