Juliette Binoche-Led ANTIGONE Opens at the Kennedy Center Tonight

As previously announced, the Kennedy Center will present a Barbican and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, in association with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, production of ANTIGONE by Sophocles, in a new translation by T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Anne Carson from tonight, October 22, through October 25, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Starring Academy Award-winning actress Juliette Binoche in the title role, the production is directed by internationally renowned, award-winning Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove. The press opening night is tonight, October 22, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.

The cast also includes Obi Abili, Kirsty Bushell, Samuel Edward-Cook, Finbar Lynch, Patrick O'Kane, and Kathryn Pogson. The creative team features set and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld, costume design by An d'Huys, composition and sound design by Daniel Freitag, dramaturgy by Peter van Kraaij, and video by Tal Yarden.

When her dead brother is decreed a traitor and his body is left unburied beyond the city walls, Antigone refuses to accept this severe punishment. Defying her uncle who governs, she dares to say "no." Forging ahead with a funeral on her own, she places personal allegiance before politics, a tenacious act that will trigger a cycle of destruction.

This production premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in February 2015 before transferring to London's Barbican Theatre in March 2015. The production toured throughout Europe and continues its tour in the United States to include New York, Washington, D.C., and Michigan, and North Carolina

ABOUT THE CAST, CREATIVES:

Juliette Binoche (ANTIGONE) is a Parisian-born actress, artist and dancer who received the Academy Award, BAFTA, European Film Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and the HFPA's Golden Globe for her turn in the 1996 film, The English Patient. Binoche also holds the unique distinction of being the only female to win Best Actress honors in all three main European Film Festivals-the Palme d'Or at Cannes for Certified Copy, (2010), both the Volpi Cup and Pasinetti Award at Venice for Three Colors: Blue (1993), and Berlin's Silver Bear for The English Patient (1996).

Some of her most prominent film roles include Chocolat with Johnny Depp (earning her second Academy Award nomination), The Unbearable Lightness of Being alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, Wuthering Heights with Ralph Fiennes, Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell, and the 2014 blockbuster Godzilla, which raked in over $500 million worldwide at the box office. She was recently seen in Clouds of Sils Maria (2015) opposite Kristen Stewart, and can next be seen in The 33 (November 2015) with Antonio Banderas, which is based on the real events of the 2010 mining disaster.

In addition to her film work, Binoche has frequently returned to the theater, with credits that include the 1988 production of Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Andrei Konchalovsky at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris; Naked at the Almeida Theatre in London; the 2012 modernized version of August Strindberg's classic play Miss Julie at London's Barbican; dancer Akram Khan's 2008 dance-drama piece called in-i at the National Theatre in London; and her Broadway debut in Harold Pinter's Betrayal opposite Liev Schreiber and John Slattery, for which she earned a 2001 Tony nomination as Best Actress. Binoche traveled throughout Europe and continues to tour in the United States in the title role of Sophocles' ANTIGONE, directed by Ivo van Hove with a new translation by award-winning poet Anne Carson. The production, which premiered at Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, is a co-production with the Barbican London, in association with the Toneelgroep Amsterdam and recently wrapped its run at the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival.

Anne Carson (Translation) is a poet, essayist, translator, playwright, and classicist. With her background in classical languages, comparative literature, anthropology, history, and commercial art, Carson blends ideas and themes from many fields. She frequently references, modernizes, and translates Greek mythology, and has published more than a dozen books, all of which blend the forms of poetry, essay, prose, criticism, translation, dramatic dialogue, fiction, and non-fiction.

Anne Carson's translation of Sophocles' ANTIGONE received its world premiere at Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Barbican in London, starring Juliette Binoche and directed by Ivo van Hove. The production toured throughout Europe and continues its tour in the United States. Carson recently translated Bakkhai, which was produced in London in the summer of 2015. Classic Stage Company has produced three of Carson's translations-Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Electra, and An Oresteia (from Euripides' Orestes)-in repertory. Carson's works include Autobiography of Red; Red Doc>; Antigonick; If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (translation); The Beauty of the Husband; Men in the Off Hours; Economy of the Unlost; Plainwater: Essays and Poetry; Glass, Irony and God; Eros the Bittersweet: an Essay; Decreation: Poetry, Essays Opera; and Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (translation). She is a MacArthur Fellow; she has received the Lannan Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize (twice-awarded), and was an Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany.

Ivo van Hove (Director) has been general director of the Toneelgroep Amsterdam since 2001. His credits for Toneelgroep Amsterdam include Kings of War, The Fountainhead, Long Day's Journey into Night, Scenes from a Marriage, The Miser, Children of the Sun, Othello, Teorama, Summer Trilogy, Antonioni Project, Cries and Whispers, The Human Voice, Rocco and his Brothers, Angels in America, and Roman Tragedies. Other theater credits include Strange Interlude and Ludwig II (Münchner Kammerspiele), Edward II and The Misanthrope (Schaubühne, Berlin), The Little Foxes, Hedda Gabler, and A Streetcar Named Desire (New York Theatre Workshop), The Lady of Camellias and The Miser (Schauspielhaus, Hamburg) and the Young Vic, West End, and Broadway production of A View from the Bridge, for which he was awarded the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Director. Among the operas he has directed are Brokeback Mountain (Teatro Real, Madrid), The Clemency of Titus and Idomeneo (La Monnaie Opera, Brussels), Mazeppa (Komische Oper, Berlin), Verdi's Macbeth (L'Opera de Lyon), Iolanta and The Makropulos Case (De Nederlandse Opera) and Lulu and Wagner's The Ring Cycle (Flemish Opera); and for film and television, van Hove has worked on Amsterdam and Home Front, among others. From 1998-2004, van Hove was artistic director of the Holland Festival. He was made Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 2004.

About the Barbican - A world-class arts and learning organization, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theater, and visual arts. Its creative learning program further underpins everything it does. Over 1.5 million people pass through the Barbican's doors annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured and more than 300 staff work onsite. The architecturally renowned center opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, The Pit, Cinemas One, Two and Three, Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants. The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.

The Barbican is home to Resident Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra; Associate Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra; Associate Ensembles the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia, and Associate Producer Serious. Artistic Associates include Boy Blue Entertainment, Cheek by Jowl, Michael Clark Company and Deborah Warner. International Associates are Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and Jazz at Lincoln Center. For more information, please visit www.barbican.org.uk.

About Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg: Grand Théâtre / Théâtre des Capucins - The Grand Théâtre and the Théâtre des Capucins, two separate venues operating under the same header-Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg-are a major national and international player when it comes to producing and presenting theater, dance, and opera in Luxembourg.

Built in the 1960s to mark the millennium anniversary of Luxembourg City, the Grand Théâtre has two performance spaces with state-of-the-art facilities. With a seating capacity of up to 1,000, the main auditorium can easily host the most elaborate international productions. The Studio is an alternative space with a more intimate capacity of up to 300 seats, black box set up, modular concept, and refined technology. Over the course of the past decade, the Théâtres de la Ville have emerged as one of the major European co-producers, forging close relationships with renowned companies such as the English National Opera, the Barbican, Cheek by Jowl, Vlaamse Opera, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele, Wiener Festwochen, and Aix-en-Provence Festival. Numerous world-class productions such as Dido and Aeneas by Sasha Waltz, Two Lips and Dancers and Space by Robert Wilson, and Wagner Dream by Jonathan Harvey have had their world premiere at the Grand Théâtre. The Théâtre des Capucins, a 260-seat proscenium-arch theater in the City center was placed under the same management in 2001 and has since developed its audience and program.

ANTIGONE runs October 22 - 25, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets starting at $69 are available on the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or call (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

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