"In the olden days, before there were 3D televisions and things like that...". So said my 11 year-old, offering a perspective on time as perceived by the target audience of Ryan Craig's "How to think the unthinkable". How they perceive the 2500 years or so passed since Sophocles wrote Antigone, I dare not consider, but The Unicorn Theatre, now under its new Artistic Director, Purni Morrel, continues to push the boundaries of what our soi disant "dumbed down" generation can handle.
Updating, simplifying and compressing Antigone into an hour of intense drama is a smart move. Teens can identify with the teenage girl's desire to risk everything for what she believes is right; they can feel the guards' discomfort at their decision to be "only following orders" and how that understandable, if cowardly, abdication of responsibility leads to tragedy; and, possibly, they can appreciate the dilemmas facing a King and father caught on the horns of a dilemma, who chooses too clever a compromise that unravels to his mounting horror.
Staged in the smaller of the Unicorn's two spaces with sand strewn over the floor and stormy sounds all around, director Ellen McDougall keeps the actors circling each other as the nooses of their own making tighten around their necks. As King Creon, Neil Sheffield's appearance alone shows how swiftly the pomp and circumstance of state dissolve if not buttressed by statecraft and Alex Austin's Tom shows how an everyman cannot rely on homely homilies when swept up in machinations that have lives at stake. The ensemble cast do a fine job with a script that is modern without being too modish.
As ever with this theatre's work for teenage audiences, there's more than enough to hold the attention of parents. This parent will seek out a more traditional Antigone at the first opportunity, a wiser and more interested spectator for seeing this version - and I suspect, though maybe not for a few years, the same can be said for my 11 year-old. Which is exactly what productions like this aim to do.
How to think the unthinkable is at the Unicorn Theatre until 19 May and is supported by an excellent information pack.
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