Antigone gives ancient Greek play a modern feel at Bard on the Beach, to September 18
In playwright Kate Besworth and director Ming Hudson’s adaptation, contemporary language highlights the continuing relevance of Sophocles’ 5th century BC tragedy
Ming Hudson, left; Kate Besworth
Bard on the Beach presents Antigone at the Douglas Campbell Theatre in Vanier Park from June 30 to September 18
BARD ON THE BEACH is known for the works of William Shakespeare, and this year’s iteration features versions of his Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor on the main stage. On the smaller Douglas Campbell Theatre stage, meanwhile, two very different productions each tackle one of Sophocles’ Theban plays.
While the Goblins—Wug, Kragva, and Moog—apply their raucously comic touch to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, as adapted by John Murrell in Goblin:Oedipus, playwright Kate Besworth and director Ming Hudson take a more traditionally dramatic approach to the 5th century Greek tragedian’s Antigone.
In the play, Antigone—daughter of exiled Theban king Oedipus and his wife/mother Jocasta—finds herself at odds with her uncle Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, over the legacies of her brothers Eteocles and Polynices, who have died while fighting each other for the throne.
Yoshie Bancroft in Antigone. Photo by Emily Cooper
Besworth and Hudson’s adaptation uses modern prose to highlight the timeless themes of grief and moral courage for a contemporary audience.
“The story of Antigone is ancient, and this production explores the tension between fate and personal agency, asking what individuals owe to family, conscience, and community in moments of crisis,” says director Hudson. “This is a family linked together by an inescapable history and an unavoidable future. This story has survived millennia and spread across continents. And after thousands of years and thousands of kilometres, it continues to be relevant and resonant because although so much has changed, so much has remained the same.”
Yoshie Bancroft stars as Antigone, with Besworth taking on the role of her sister, Ismene. Cameron Grant has dual roles as Haimon and Polynices, with Jennifer Lines as Jocasta and Paul Moniz de Sá as Creon. 
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