Since 2019, the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre has been on a fateful journey. As part of their mission to continually bring classic theatre to modern audiences, the Court set out to reimagine a tragic tale performed for over 2,000 years—Sophocles's Oedipus Trilogy.
Their adaption of the three-play cycle began with “Oedipus Rex.” In 2023, “The Gospel at Colonus” set the story of Oedipus’s redemption to a soul-stirring gospel soundtrack. On Feb. 2, Court opened “Antigone,” the final installment of their epic retelling.
“Antigone” centers on the daughter/sister of Oedipus. As the play opens, the eponymous heroine is in mourning. Antigone’s brothers are dead—murdered by each other’s hand in a civil war. Her uncle Creon, the new king of Thebes, has declared one of them a traitor. Directly defying his decree, Antigone buries her brother and incites a tragic chain of events.
Trace the journeys of Oedipus and Antigone from ancient Greece, to Court’s stage, to a UChicago classroom.