Antigone [on strike] @ Park Theatre - Review
A very Netflix take on Sophocles and Shamima Begum. ★★★
I recieved a free press ticket for this event. All opinions are my own.
At Park Theatre Park90, Finsbury Park, until 22nd February 2025.
Tickets from £15/10 u25s.
Rating: ★★★
Antigone [on strike] is a very modern take on the classic, centred on a fictionalised version of the Shamima Begum case. For those not familiar, Shamima Begum is a British-born woman who was groomed into marrying an adult man and joining ISIS as a child, and was subsequently illegally made stateless when her British citizenship was revoked. This story changes some details - she’s called Esmeh not Shamima, she’s of Iraqi heritage not Bangladeshi - but takes more than mere inspiration.
Esmeh (played by Hanna Khogali) is not the hero of this piece. She is relegated to pre-recorded video calls and mentions. Antiya (Hiba Medina), her sister, is the protagonist, on an inevitably tragic mission to extract her baby sister from the cruel bureaucracy of the court system. She is joined by a small cast: Eammon (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) is her boyfriend and ally; Creighton (Phil Cheadle) is his father and, maybe co-incidentally or maybe not, the Home Secretary who pulled the trigger on Esmeh; Ty (Sorcha Brooks) hovers somewhere between a SpAd, a virtual assistant and a chrous, an unwavering devotee of probability and opinion polling.
The Shamima Begum case is one I care about and is close to my heart. She is a human who has become one of the cruelest culture war pawns. I don’t think this piece does anything to re-humanise her, though in fairness I don’t think it was intending to do so. Everything from the frequent panel show debates to the audience participation polling to the choice not to have Esmeh played live casts ISIS brides as an issue rather than as people. I don’t like this, and it feels like it falls into a classic trap with satire, of simply doing something while trying to critique it.
Sophocles on the other hand is very well respected here. The spiraling, inevitably tragic melodrama falls nicely in the Greek tradition despite experimental methods and a modern setting. At times it does feel a bit much, expositional dialogue and sad scenes at the edge of a roof veer a little into angsty Netflix drama, but the overall arc is sound and true to the source text.
Alongside their primary roles, all actors drop in and out of talk show panellists and shouting personifications of social media feeds, to overwhelming effect. There is definitely variation in the cast’s ability to make these quick shifts. Hiba Medina flips the switch effortlessly; Ali Hadji-Heshmati struggles more, with some emotional father-son scenes especially falling flat as he struggles to drop the debate team mannerisms- it’s an ambitious theatre debut for a TV actor.
The really unique element of this piece is an audience participation device where we vote in polls and, allegedly, it changes the course of the story. I do doubt that it changes it significantly, though this may be the point, the inevitability of fate which is explicitly referenced by Ty during the more meta moments. If you also saw it, drop a comment, do you think your choices actually changed the plot?
The set is designed with this audience participation and heavy AV use in mind. It is an all-white marvel with wood panels that appear to be straight out of a Victorian civic building (Parliament, many of our higher courts, etc.). The white is a fantastic choice, it recalls classical ruins or a place outside time, perfect for Ty, while also allowing regular projections of different settings. Both beautiful and a practical use of limited space, I can only applaud Marco Turcich for this piece of design (with one exception- if you’re under 5’9 and sitting in the back row, you can’t see the polling options!).
Though at times hackneyed and tropey, Antigone [on strike] is fast paced, gripping, emotional and direct in it’s messaging. This is truly an Antigone after Sophocles - unlike some.
I’m stepping back from Instagram due to Meta’s corporate choices. Any social media you’d like to see me on?