ANTIGONE

after Jean Anouilh

Winner of two „ASKEER“ 2023 awards in the categories - "Best Performance" and "Directing"

Director - Aleksandar Morfov

A theatrical improvisation on ideas and fragments from texts by Jean Anouilh, Sophocles, Roy Hen and Aleksandar Morfov

Translation - Hristo Mitskov and Aleksandar Morfov
Set design - Semyon Pastukh, Tita Dimova-Vantek
Costumes - Tita Dimova-Vantek
Movement - Andreea Gavriliu (Romania)
Sound and assistant director - Dušanka Belada (Montenegro)
Assistants - Denis Simeonov and Reni Vrangova
designer - Nikolay Dimitrov-NAD
Assistant set and costume designer - Gabriela Dukova
Musicians - Borislav Kovachev and Aleksandar Kolev

Cast

Antigone – Milena Ermenkova
Creon – Deyan Donkov
Ismene – Nadya Keranova
Haemon – Aleksandar Kanev
Jocasta – Nina Goranovski
Eurydice – Nina Goranovski
Creon’s First Secretary – Adrian Filipov
Leader of the Chorus – Ovanes Torosyan
Polynices – Asen Dankov
Eteocles – Vasil Vitanov
Oedipus Rex – Sergey Konstantinov
Guards – Antony Penev, Vasil Vitanov, Valentin Vasilev
Assistant to the secretary – Ivan-Aleksandar Doychev
Girls in Creon’s palace – Borisa Sarafova-Cherkelova, Diana Handzhieva, Elitsa Aneva, Yoana Kircheva, Margarita Kostova, Maria Yordanova, Mariyana Petrova
Chorus of the citizens of Thebes – Adrian Filipov, Mihail Ludin, Vasil Vitanov, Antony Penev, Asen Dankov, Valentin Vasilev, Diana Handzhieva, Elitsa Aneva, Ivan-Aleksandar Doychev, Yoana Kircheva, Margarita Kostova, Maria Yordanova, Mariyan Stefanov, Mariyana Petrova, Borisa Sarafova-Cherkelova, Sergey Konstantinov, Tsvetelina Ilieva, Yoanna Torosyan
Leader of the orchestra – Ovanes Torosyan
The Delphic Oracle – Yoana Torosyan

Jean Anouilh’s "Antigone" has returned to the European repertoire, and to Bulgaria too, with the long-awaited premiere by Aleksandar Morfov – the theatrical event of the Pleven theatre. After a seven-year absence from the Bulgarian stage, Morfov staged a vividly theatrical, ensemble production, in which the performances of Deyan Donkov, Milena Ermenkova, Nadya Keranova, Aleksandar Kanev and Ovanes Torosyan stand out. The whole company works as a single organism to reveal the mechanisms of tragedy, valid from Antiquity to our own day.

Milena Ermenkova’s Antigone captivates with her strength of spirit, with the moral tuning-fork set within her. She is what she is, and nothing can divert her from the path laid out for her. One cannot fail to bury the dead, one cannot fail to honour one’s loved ones and overturn what the centuries have achieved. The action unfolds amid a great library (the set design is by Semyon Pastukh and Tita Dimova-Vantek), and only Antigone is given the right to ascend to its summit, because she, and poetic natures like her, know the active power of words and are capable of deeds in moments of political and social trial.

The archetypal story is constructed by the director and his talented team as a sharply contemporary performance, in which the old myths are read in a way that generates tragic tension. Humanity is not able to learn in the course of history; it wanders in the labyrinth of its delusions, crashes into the walls of its endless cruelty and mercilessly destroys the best. Deyan Donkov’s Creon is a tyrant having a fine time, ready to go to extremes to keep his power. To him it makes no difference who is guilty and who is not; he is not interested in moral dilemmas - what matters is not to leave the game in which you are on top. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?