Esplanade Studios 2019 House Programme FA Singles Nobleed
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Esplanade The Studios Presents THE WEIGHT OF A IN A POCKET 28 MAR – Esplanade Theatre Studio & 27 APR 2019 Esplanade Annexe Studio C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Welcome to The Studios 2019. I rst learnt what a cairn was as a child, reading a book about a boy and his father’s hiking adventures. The boy would take every opportunity to stack some stones to mark their progress, but it wasn’t till he tried dismantling one that he learnt about its other purpose – to guide hikers along the way. I was fascinated by the concept then, and pored over photos of these rudimentary stacks of stones that complete strangers would put together for other strangers as milestones and markers of their journey. The theatre is a little bit like that. Strangers gather as artists and audience to travel across time and space, sharing and carrying each other’s stories. With every story told, another stone is added, another landmark to commemorate our individual and collective journeys through life. There is something altruistic and vulnerable about this exchange, and I suspect, is what draws us to the theatre time and time again. In the theatre, we nd a place to deposit the weight of our respective stones; in the theatre, we don’t feel so alone. Thank you to the artists, creatives, and technical personnel behind The Studios 2019 season, your craft, generosity and commitment are why we are all here. Thank you to The Studios team - Evelyn, Caroline, Shiraz, Fezhah, Shireen, Izumi, and Vanessa. I couldn't have asked for better compatriots. And thank you for taking the time to be here with us; your presence is what makes this season complete. Lynn Yang Lead Programmer The Studios 2019 1 The enduring quality of Sophocles’ Antigone democratic tradition and wariness of stems from its age-old conict between a tyranny. Over time, the play has remained citizen's conformity to social or national popular precisely because of its relevance laws, and one's innate obligations to the to the tugging demands of the need to natural or 'divine' laws of right and wrong. police national groups and borders, as well as the impulse for compassion; the A girl's brothers go to war against each exigency of control and order, versus other and die. One is honoured as a hero. respecting individual freedom and The other branded a traitor and left to rot civil liberties. out in the wilderness. The new person in charge decrees that anyone who buries (I write this while listening to a Spotify the traitor would be stoned to death. playlist comprising of songs titled What would you do? "Antigone", by the likes of contemporary classical composers, a Greek goth Antigone chooses her love and duty as vocalist, a London electronica band, a sister and gives her brother Polyneices' a French-Japanese rap collaboration, corpse proper funeral rites. She dees her and a death-metal band.) uncle, the new king Creon. For her trouble, she is sentenced to be entombed alive. When I rst came across Antigone, She hangs herself. Creon's son, Haemon, my rst instinct had been to click my who loves her, kills himself with a knife. tongue at the two inconsiderate brothers His mother Eurydice, too, commits suicide. who fought each other in the rst place. A lot of heartache could have been Man-made law, if followed to the letter, averted if those two dunderheads had leads to despair – that seems to be the shared the throne as originally agreed. takeaway. But Sophocles' message is rarely straightforward: pig-headed Over time, however, I have realised A CO-PRODUCTION WITH CAKE adherence to binary thinking, such as that the play's premise is a lot more Antigone's self-righteous admonishing of complicated and versatile than just a her obedient younger sister Ismene who patriarchal dispute. Pakistani-British fears breaking the king's law, seldom author Kamila Shamsie's 2017 novel, Esplanade Theatre Studio makes for happy endings either. Home Fire, powerfully repurposed the 28 – 30 Mar, Thu – Sat, 8pm Antigone myth as an allegory for the rising Written in a time of nationalistic fervor and xenophobia and anti-Islamic paranoia in 30 & 31 Mar, Sat & Sun, 3pm rst performed around 441 BC, Antigone the Western world. Set in modern Britain, spoke to Athenians' pride in their it follows two sisters as they deal differently 1hr 30mins, no intermission R18: Nudity and mature themes. with the fallout from their brother's decision produce such a complete, urgent and to join ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the heart-rending response to the prohibitive Levant). When the younger sister, Aneeka, state. She disregards its dictates as only seduces the Home Secretary's son to try a pain-ridden animal can. and secure the return of her brother, the politician intensies his hardline campaign In Anne Carson's translation of Antigone, against British-Muslim "terrorists". staged at the Barbican in 2015, King Creon pronounces: "I’ll have you hanging Home Fire is but one of many contemporary by your thumbs till you confess/you greedy re-interpretations of the Greek classic pissant little amateur terrorist." This bluster that presents an alternative to the is cleared away like cobwebs when his incessant conservative Euro-American niece Antigone later tells him that he has news cycle and Trump-esque narrative of ensured the people's compliance because racial proling, travel bans and hysterical "you've nailed their tongues to the oor". enemy-of-the-state charges. In 2014, Syrian She is the lone voice of dissent, in a refugee women staged their own version of society brow-beaten and bowed as much Antigone in Beirut, weaving their own stories by the promise of stability as by violence. of war and suffering into the ancient story. In March 2019, Esplanade and Singapore Theatre is lled with female gures theatre company Cake will stage Rubber wronged by the whims of rulers. But it is Girl on the loose which reimagines a multi/ Antigone who burns a bright ame in the inter-cultural Antigone in a hallucinatory collective retina, before winking out and institution ruled by three Creons. These leaving an unforgettable after-image. versions are antidotes, in a world hung up on absolutes and hawkish rhetoric. They Clara Chow is the author of Modern are necessary, important, salves. Myths, a collection of short ction inspired by characters from Greek mythology. When I think of Antigone now, I am in awe of and emboldened by her deance. This is an excerpt from her essay, ‘Women in Perhaps, it is only a woman – with Tragedy’, commissioned by Esplanade and none of the privilege and power of published on www.esplanade.com/learn. the male-dominated establishment, and everything to lose – who can RUBBER GIRL ON THE LOOSE ANTI-ABSOLUTES: THE WORLD OF ANTIGONE BY CLARA CHOW The enduring quality of Sophocles’ Antigone democratic tradition and wariness of stems from its age-old conict between a tyranny. Over time, the play has remained citizen's conformity to social or national popular precisely because of its relevance laws, and one's innate obligations to the to the tugging demands of the need to natural or 'divine' laws of right and wrong. police national groups and borders, as well as the impulse for compassion; the A girl's brothers go to war against each exigency of control and order, versus other and die. One is honoured as a hero. respecting individual freedom and The other branded a traitor and left to rot civil liberties. out in the wilderness. The new person in charge decrees that anyone who buries (I write this while listening to a Spotify the traitor would be stoned to death. playlist comprising of songs titled What would you do? "Antigone", by the likes of contemporary classical composers, a Greek goth Antigone chooses her love and duty as vocalist, a London electronica band, a sister and gives her brother Polyneices' a French-Japanese rap collaboration, corpse proper funeral rites. She dees her and a death-metal band.) uncle, the new king Creon. For her trouble, she is sentenced to be entombed alive. When I rst came across Antigone, She hangs herself. Creon's son, Haemon, my rst instinct had been to click my who loves her, kills himself with a knife. tongue at the two inconsiderate brothers His mother Eurydice, too, commits suicide. who fought each other in the rst place. A lot of heartache could have been Man-made law, if followed to the letter, averted if those two dunderheads had leads to despair – that seems to be the shared the throne as originally agreed. takeaway. But Sophocles' message is rarely straightforward: pig-headed Over time, however, I have realised adherence to binary thinking, such as that the play's premise is a lot more Antigone's self-righteous admonishing of complicated and versatile than just a her obedient younger sister Ismene who patriarchal dispute. Pakistani-British fears breaking the king's law, seldom author Kamila Shamsie's 2017 novel, makes for happy endings either. Home Fire, powerfully repurposed the Antigone myth as an allegory for the rising Written in a time of nationalistic fervor and xenophobia and anti-Islamic paranoia in rst performed around 441 BC, Antigone the Western world. Set in modern Britain, spoke to Athenians' pride in their it follows two sisters as they deal differently 3 with the fallout from their brother's decision produce such a complete, urgent and to join ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the heart-rending response to the prohibitive Levant).