Brecht: Antigone

Brecht, Bertold: Antigone, Tr. Judith Malina; Applause Theatre Book Publishers, New York, 1990

I think I enjoyed this version the best of the 3 we've considered this year: Aeschylus', Anouillh's and now Brecht's.  This may because I had more sympathy for Antigone herself in this one.  She just seemed obstinate in the original Greek play and I couldn't understand why her loyalty to her dead, traitorous, power-hungry brother trumped her responsibility and feelings for her living, needy sister.  Anouillh's version had a more sympathetic Creon but I think I prefer the original Creon, initially narrow-minded and self-righteous but eventually self-aware, humble and repentant.

I LOVED the language in this version (as I did in Sophocles version, not so much in Anouillh).  I'm always impressed when the language in a translation is beautiful.  I never know for sure whether it is 'as good' as the original but I have to wonder whether beautiful language, certainly beautiful imagery, can persist into other languages.

Brecht begins his version with a prose poem that encapsulates the play.  This would make a great "60 second' play.
He captures so much so efficiently.

And Ismene, her sister, came out of the house and said:
'I am the one who did it.' But Antigone said: 'She's lying.'
And wiping the sweat off, he said: 'Work it out between you.'

So much captured in 3 lines.

Kreon is a colder, more tyrannical person in this version.  Antigone is more idealistic, not just about her duty to her gods and family but about the injustice of Kreon's rule.  This all makes sense when you think about the timing of this version, so close to WWII.

I'll have to keep my eye out for Brecht's version being performed sometime.

Some lines I want to remember:

_{Pg 18                           62}

_ISMENE

_{…we’re women,}

_{who haven’t the strength to fight}

_{against men; and therefore we’re obedient}

_{in this, and in some things even harder.  Therefore}

_{I ask the dead and the oppressed to forgive me, I obey}

_{The authorities.  What’s the sense of committing}

_{Useless actions.}

_{Pg 21                           147}

_KREON

_{…I know}

_{that you will not count the costs}

_{when it comes to oiling the wheels}

_{of the man-mangling war machine, any more}

_{than you deny him the blood}

_{of your sons in battle.}

_{Pg 24                           235}

_KREON

_…

_{Of all things graven,}

_{There is nothing as evil as silver.  It corrupts}

_{Whole states.  It lures men from their homes}

_{To practice every kind of godless action…}

_{Pg 26                           300}

_{THE ELDERS}

_{For he who finds no enemy becomes}

_{His own enemy.  As though he were an ox,}

_{He yokes the neck of his neighbor, but his neighbor}

_{Tears it off.  If he advances}

_{He steps across the bodies of his own people.  He can’t}

_{Fill his own stomach.  But he builds a wall}

_{Around his own property; and the wall:}

_{It must be torn down!  Open the roof to the}

_{Rain!  He counts what is human}

_{As nothing at all.  He has become}

_{His own monster.}

_{Pg 32                           433}

_ANTIGONE

_{…Anyone who uses}

_violence

_{against his enemy will turn and use violence against}

_{his own people.}

_{Pg 36                           514}

_ANTIGONE

_{Don’t die too abstractly.}

_527-8

_KREON

_{These women, I tell you, they’re all alike;}

_{One of them loses her mind, and another one follows.}

_…

_{ISMENE     530}

_{But you’re killing your son’s own bride.}

_{KREON       531}

_{There’s more than one field for a man to plow.}

_{Pg 40                           611}

_KREON

_{…The uncommitted man}

_{who doesn’t know his own mind tastes dissent}

_{in every small annoyance….}

_{Pg 41                           650}

_HAMON

_…

_{But don’t say you alone can be right, and no other.}

_{He who cuts himself off from the others has}

_{No thoughts or speech or soul like another,}

_{And if we look inside such a man}

_{We would find him empty…}

_{Pg 43                           692}

_KREON

_…

_{“He seems to be that woman’s comrade.”}

_HAMON

_{Not only hers, but of all that’s just, wherever I see it.}

_KREON

_{Wherever there’s a hole in it.}

_…

_KREON

_{I’d call that fresh if it weren’t a woman’s slave who}

_{Said it.}

_HAMON

_{Better her slave than yours.}

_…

_{…You want to say everything}

_{and hear nothing.}

_{Pg 45                           729}

_…

_{O lusts of the flesh, it is you}

_{Who win every battle!...}

_{Pg 46                           778}

_ANTIGONE

_{I, who belong to life, not to death.}

_{THE ELDERS}

_…

_{Violence never examines its motives.}

₈₀₀

_ANTIGONE

_…

_{And men say that winter is always with her}

_{And her throat is washed}

_{With the snowbright tears of her eyelids…}