★★★★
Antigone: The Musical bills itself as ‘a radical and fun musical retelling of an Ancient Greek myth’. Two of Antigone’s brothers have recently killed each other in battle, one of whom is branded a traitor and is to be denied burial rights. Antigone thinks this is wrong, and decides to bury both brothers, even though this itself is outlawed and could result in her own death. As someone who knows absolutely nothing about the classics, I have no idea how much creative license has been taken with the original story, but I did overhear one of the performers telling someone that they’ve changed the ending.
What’s undeniable about this show is how much fun it is. The writer, Marina McCready, has managed to make it seem natural that you would fuse Greek mythology with romantic comedy and musical theatre. This results in a highly entertaining hour that still has enough substance to it that it feels like far more than just a fluff piece, or a send-up.
The score is steeped in classic musical theatre traditions and influences. It’s also just a joy to listen to. Something I really liked about this score was when themes were brought back in reprises, it would have been great to see more of this to tie the piece together a bit more. Some of the lyrics are a little bit repetitive or tend towards the simplistic, but these are a few isolated cases, rather than it being a pervasive problem throughout the show.
The performances are incredible across the board. Particular praise must go to Sukanya Subramaniyan as the titular Antigone whose vocal tone was really lovely to listen to, and Jack Lawrence as Creon, who revelled in the pantomime villain-esque qualities of his character.
I was also really impressed with both the lighting and sound design by Kit Treadwell and Sam Bell respectively. The lighting compensated for the limited set , while the balance of live band to singers meant that you could hear every word clearly, something that I’ve seen other more-seasoned companies with smaller bands struggle to do.
In the second half there are a lot of songs with the general message of ‘We’re going to have a revolution! Yeah!’, interspersed with character-focussed songs, which slows the pace. Some of these, such as Tiresias’ song, could easily be moved to earlier in the show (I wouldn’t want to see them cut as they’re great songs).
Taking Greek myth and turning it into an entertaining musical is no easy task, but Antigone: The Musical certainly delivers.
Review by Ella Catherall
