Eccleston Joins Cast Of ANTIGONE At National Theatre

Polly Findlay directs ANTIGONE by Sophocles, in a version by Don Taylor, opening in the Olivier on 30 May as part of the Travelex £12 Tickets season. Jodie Whittaker makes her National Theatre debut in the title role and Christopher Eccleston plays Creon. The production will be designed by Soutra Gilmour, with lighting by Mark Henderson and movement by Aline David.

Desperate to gain control over a city ravaged by civil war, Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone’s rebellious brother. Outraged, she defies his edict. Creon condemns the young woman, his niece, to be buried alive.

The people daren’t object but the prophet Teiresias warns that this tyranny will anger the gods: the rotting corpse is polluting the city. Creon hesitates and his fate is sealed.

Christopher Eccleston’s theatre credits include A Doll’s House (Donmar Warehouse), the title role in Hamlet (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Miss Julie (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), Waiting at the Water’s Edge (Bush), Aide-Memoire(Royal Court) and Bent and Abingdon Square (National Theatre).  His many films include G.I. Joe, The Dark is Rising, 28 Days Later, Elizabeth, Jude, Shallow Grave and Let Him Have It;  his extensive television work includesThe Fuse, The Borrowers, The Shadow Line, Accused (International Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor),Lennon, Perfect Parents, The Doctor in Dr Who, The League of Gentlemen, The Second Coming, Flesh & Blood(RTS Best Actor award), Othello, Hillsborough, Our Friends in the North and Cracker.

Jodie Whittaker plays Antigone.  Her television credits include Cranford, The Night Watch, Marchlands, The Accused, Royal Wedding, Tess of the D’Urbevilles, This Life Plus Ten and Billy Two-Sheds;  her films include Good Vibrations, Ashes, One Day, Attack the Block, A Thousand Kisses Deep, Good, St Trinians and St Trinians 2 andVenus.  Theatre work includes Awake and Sing! and Enemies (Almeida), The Storm (Globe) and Bash (Trafalgar Studios).

Polly Findlay directed DC Moore’s The Swan and Prasanna Puwanarajah’s Nightwatchman for Double Feature in the NT’s Paintframe in 2011. She was the winner of the JMK Award for Young Directors, and the recipient of the 2006/07 Bulldog Prinsep Bursary at the NT Studio. Her directing credits also include Twisted Tales (Lyric Hammersmith),Honest (Royal & Derngate Northampton, Edinburgh Festival and Soho), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Arcola),The Door Never Closes (Almeida), Eigengrau (Bush), Short Fuses and Kick Off (Bristol Old Vic), Riz MC - MICroscope (Sadler’s Wells), Miles Away (for Nabokov at Latitude), Romeo and Juliet (BAC), Good (Sound Theatre) and As You Like It (Oxford Playhouse).

2012 marks the tenth anniversary of Travelex Tickets at the National. Almost half the tickets for Antigone and three other plays in the Olivier Theatre are £12 (the rest are £22 and £32).  Media partner:  The Independent.