[ noun ] (Greek mythology) the daughter of King Oedipus who disobeyed her father and was condemned to death <noun.person>
Equally fine are Claire Bloom as Jocasta, John Shrapnel as Creon and Juliet Stevenson as Antigone.
"Antigone" did not die with Sophocles, though it would "die" if no one existed who could read or understand it.
Antigone's admirers see it as a paradigm of public sector development.
We are so accustomed to seeing modern plays bash power in all its forms that we easily miss the point of "Antigone," which is that political power has its necessities as well as its limits.
In "Oedipus the King" and the third play, "Antigone," Sir John Gielgud appears in top form as Teiresias, the blind seer who understands all too well why human beings do not wish to see.
And worse, their laments for the doomed Antigone come off as smug hypocrisy.
But these missteps are less serious than the misuse of the chorus in "Antigone," a profound and complex play that definitely is not a melodrama.