I attended a performance of "Sophocles' Antigone" by Brendan Kennelly at Zoellner Arts Center tonight, directed by Lehigh professor Pam Pepper and performed by Lehigh University students, and I was amazed by the quality of the production. I came because Antigone is one of my favorite plays, especially the 20th-century version by Jean Anouilh in 1944 with Its veiled references to the fight against Nazism, and while I have enjoyed other productions of the theater department and knew it would probably be a good show, I did not expect it to be as remarkable as it ended up being - on par with many professional performances I have seen.
Sophocles' Antigone is a modern version of the Greek tragedy and benefited from an elegant and sparse set designed by Lehigh professor Jeffrey Milet, assisted by scenic artist Heeyoung Son and student Marc Rein '11 (who, as it happens, was the Orientation Leader assigned to my group for the evoLUtion seminar and will be directing Two Rooms by Lee Blessing in the Black Box at Zoellner Arts Center in March - mark your calendars). The actors had no props but made excellent use of the long and narrow drapes that cross the stage to punctuate the key points of dialogue.
While everyone in the cast was excellent, David Quinones '12 as Creon stole the show and gave an incandescent performance - the kind of performance that you do not expect from a college student, but rather from a seasoned actor with many (paying) gigs under his belt. I was glad to read in his biography that he does plan to pursue professional acting as a full-time career after he graduates; it would be a pity to see such talent wasted. According to his bio, he comes from the Bronx, is majoring in theatre, has performed in the Lehigh productions of Wintertime, The Bear, Twelfth Night, Seascape and Recklessness, and is a member of both the Latino Student Alliance and the Mustard & Cheese Drama Society (the second-oldest drama society in the country).
Both Wonu Owoseni '13 as Antigone and Kimber-Lee Alston '13 as Ismene gave very strong performances too; they more than held their own in front of Quinones - no small feat. Owoseni is an international relations major minoring in theater who is a member of Lehigh's Global Citizenship program; Alston is a theater major who attended LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts in Brooklyn, NY. I am looking forward to (hopefully) seeing them in future performances of the Lehigh theater department.
Because of Pacing Break, there will be no performance of Sophocles' Antigone this weekend. The next (and last) two performances will be on Friday, October 15 and Saturday, October 16, at 8pm both days. The play runs for about 70 minutes and does not have an intermission. Tickets at full price are $12; senior citizens and Lehigh or LVAIC faculty/staff pay $11; college students with ID (from Lehigh or elsewhere) and everybody aged 17 or younger pay $5. Steps in Diamond Theater - the smaller venue in Zoellner Arts Center - are very steep but views of the stage are excellent from all seats. Catch the play if you can; when Quinones becomes famous, you'll be able to look smug and say you saw him when he was still an unknown college student. That and the fact that Sophocles' play, broadly about collaboration and resistance, standing up for what you believe in, the fateful hubris of people in power and the way one person can make a difference, should be required reading everywhere.
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