Review Roundup: ANTIGONE [ON STRIKE] at the Park Theatre

Exploring how the media shapes politics and public discourse on immigration, human rights and extremism, this new drama updates Sophocles' Greek tragedy and asks the audience to vote on the narrative, displaying their answers in real-time. Inspired by the true stories of young women from the UK who became the so called ‘ISIS Brides', Antigone [on strike] follows Law student Antiya as she campaigns against an ambitious Home Secretary to bring her sister Esmeh back from Syria. Anitya's risky hunger strike causes a media frenzy that engulfs her and the Home Secretary's family in a PR game that no one is certain how to play.   

Sat within an all-white replica of the UK House of Commons, audiences are invited to participate in the unfolding narrative by casting real-time votes and comments with wireless keypad devices, interrogating how our choices have real-life consequences and can easily be monetized and weaponized by the highest bidder. 

The play was developed through community discussions with students and teachers in schools in East London. In addition to the actual play, a series of free educational workshops was created in collaboration with Hafsah Aneela Bashir that aim to empower young people to engage with politics through art and activism. See what the critics are saying here...

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Cindy Marcolina, BroadwayWorld:  Raptotasios toys with genre and form, building upon the great tragic tradition to address a faceted and slippery discourse. The blaming game that develops momentarily shifts the focus from the conversation about human rights and justice, while the near-constant interjections of the media divert the attention further. Dynamic in style and acumen, it’s a play that justifies the trip to Finsbury Park. There is, however, the issue that some of the images used for the projected feeds look very much like AI...

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: It is a shame it feels so clunky with many extraneous parts. The immersive elements ironically push you out of the drama. When the story of the rebel sister is allowed to breathe, it engages.

Liam O'Dell: There wasn’t an exact option to state I was here reviewing the play, but when it comes to the latter, I said I wanted to experience emotion. And while I have no doubt audiences will enjoy just how daring the interactive questions become, and the heightened pacing which comes from news articles whizzing across screen displays, the jury’s still out on whether I had a specific emotional response to this stylistically impressive production light on new arguments about preexisting topics.

Harry Bower, All That Dazzles: Despite my criticism, I enjoyed the ninety minutes which played out in the stark white House of Commons-cum-Court Room hybrid set. Asked at the beginning of the piece, some 40 percent of audience members say they came to the show to have their beliefs challenged. When in its stride, Antigone [on strike] achieves this with flare, allowing its antagonists and its creative representation of societal views at the time of Begum’s case to inspire an internal monologue of debate while you watch it unfold. My frustration with some choices in the production are purely down to its inconsistency and its potential to be something more challenging, more refined, and more meaningful.

A Young(ish) Perspective: Finally, Greek Tragedy lives and dies on the hill of the spectacle of theatre: on the feeling of ‘having gone to the theatre’ and been emotionally purged. In the absence of distinct, plausible characters, relationships, or story, this was a piece that relied on the grandeur of Ancient Greek Tragedy but understood very little of it. It thus left the drastic melodrama of the ending baffling as opposed to moving.

Paris, Theatre and Tonic: Though the production has its flaws—some moments feeling hesitant to take a clear stance, some elements underdeveloped—it is undeniably worth seeing. It forces audiences to reflect on difficult contemporary issues, and in a time where mainstream narratives increasingly serve power rather than truth, that alone makes it a vital piece of theatre.

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