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Ideological opposites clash 1n upcoming Theatre production

> Acontemporary adaptation of ‘Antigone’

Caroline Ho Arts Editor

dualistic battle of ideological extremes will dominate the stage in Antigone, the first of two Winter 2018 productions from the Departments of Theatre and Stagecraft & Technology. Adapted from Sophocles’ classic tragedy by Kathleen Weiss and directed by Thrasso Petras, the upcoming production centres around Antigone, a young woman who is determined to bury her brother’s body against the edict of her city’s ruler, Creon. Sophocles’ text, stated Petras in an interview with the Other Press, “proposes an intellectual argument between the rule of law and God, which represents morality, love, family— these different ideas of justice.” Antigone upholds the latter ideal, defying the law to do what she believes is right, while Creon stands for the former, exercising his authority for the greater good as he understands it. Both sides present compelling arguments for the justness of their position, but both also take their cases to the extreme and are unwilling to compromise. This binary—law versus morality— is one that we've seen repeated time

and time again, from Sophocles’ Ancient Greece 2,500 years ago to other periods in history, which is why productions of Antigone have had such power and poignancy over the millennia. In today’s political climate, said Petras, the debate continues to be as pertinent as ever. For example, the recent Harper government’s harsh stance on crime and their economic policies were unpalatable to many Canadians, but they evidently appealed to many others for their emphasis on law and order as the foundation of justice. Petras hopes the Theatre Department’s production of Antigone will demonstrate to audiences that both ideological poles can be very persuasive. “Tt’s not just bad guy, good guy, because that would be boring,” he said. “Creon is often cast as the bad guy, as the unreasonable, and we're trying hard to look at that character and go, ‘He’s doing what he’s doing because he genuinely believes that that’s the best course of action.” According to Petras, he expects that audiences will find themselves agreeing with one side or another, since picking sides is happening all around us each and every day. However, part of the strength of Antigone is its provocation

to consider a space between these two fundamental concepts—a challenging yet empowering middle ground of understanding and compromise.

This Antigone will also differ from traditional productions with its physicality, thanks to Kathleen Weiss’ text.

“She’s taken this intellectual debate, where in Ancient Greece it would have been produced in a much different way, much more static traditionally, and she’s left room for us to play with the physicality of it and the gestural expression of what’s going on,” said Petras.

For the director, whose background

is in physical theatre, the most satisfying thing about directing this production has been seeing these young student actors embrace the text and all of its multiple layers of meaning, uncovering the nuances of every word and combining them with movement to bring the text to life. There comes a point, said Petras, “where all of a sudden all the actor work, all the character development, all the stuff that they're doing, suddenly it allows us to really hear the triple meaning of a word, or a concept, or an image. It suddenly comes to light.”

Antigone opens on March 9g, with a free preview show on March 8 at 2 p.m., and

runs until March 16. Advance tickets are available online at antigone2018.bpt.me.

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Photo of ‘Antigone’ cast by Caroline Ho

Academy Award-nominated short films analysis |

> Animated and live-action shorts that were in the running this year

Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist

hough the Academy Awards aired on

Sunday night, it’s worth discussing the films that made it to the final round. Here is my analysis of the short films that were nominated in the 2018 Oscars.

The short films up for Best Animated Short Film this year were Dear Basketball, Negative Space, Lou, Revolting Rhymes, and Garden Party.

Dear Basketball is made by Kobe Bryant’s studio Kobe Studios.

The film shows Bryant writing a letter about his life, and it looks like something that you might see during the pre-show of an NBA game.

Negative Space is about a man reflecting on his father who passed away. It ends mid-scene, which might cause you to say, “That was it?”

Lou was shown in theatres before

Cars 3. It features a bully stealing other kids’ stuff, and a playground creature trying to thwart him. The film shows what makes a bully a bully: By being bullied himself. Revolting Rhymes is actually a special that aired on PBS last year and, because of nomination rules, had only the first half nominated for an Oscar. Based on a book by Roald Dahl, a wolf (Dominic West) tells a woman the actual story of Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. Like the film Fantastic Mr. Fox, the animals in it look like humans. Garden Party is a creepy film about a couple of frogs. As you watch it, you may be trying to figure out where the frogs are, and spoiler: You realize that they are in the mansion of a dead mafia leader. The nominees for Best Live Action Short Film are DeKalb Elementary, The Silent Child, My Nephew Emmett, The Eleven O’Clock, and Watu WoteAll of Us.

DeKalb Elementary depicts what happened during an actual shooting at an elementary school in Atlanta and shows some common signs of what can lead to a shooting.

The Silent Child is about a tutor finding out that a girl who needed speech therapy can talk through sign language. The subtitles make this short film accessible for everyone.

My Nephew Emmett is based on the true story of an African American man’s nephew who was murdered by a white man after the nephew whistled at the man’s daughter.

The Eleven O'Clock is about a psychiatrist seeing a patient who has

an illness that makes him think he is a psychiatrist, and it plays with your mind as you try to figure out who the real doctor actually is.

Watu Wote/All of Us is about a bus being held hostage by jihadist group Al-Shabaab.

By the time you are reading this, two of these short films will have won Academy Awards. If my predictions are correct, Revolting Rhymes won Best Animated Short Film because it is another great adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, and The Eleven O'Clock won Best Live Action Short Film because I simply have not seen a short film like this before.

Promotional image for ‘Revolting Rhymes’