The Antigones

GNO Alternative Stage – SNFCC

Alternative Stage Founding Donor  

The GNO Alternative Stage is extending its partnership with the Municipal & Regional Theatre of Kavala for a second consecutive year, aiming to showcase contemporary artistic works and strengthen the connection between the periphery and the Athenian audience. Five original productions from this year’s 69th Philippi Festival – organized by the Municipal & Regional Theatre of Kavala – will be showcased at the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC on 18, 19, and 20 September 2026. These performances will introduce audiences to works commissioned by the Festival that, for the first time, transcend the narrow confines of theatre and engage in dialogue with music, opera, shadow puppet theatre, and visual installations.

The performance is based on the myth of Antigone, a fundamental figure in Greek tragedy who defies Creon’s prohibition against burying her brother, Polynices, and pays the price with her own life. Her story has traversed the ages and echoes to this day.

On a deliberately minimal stage, the narration unfolds through a suitcase – a symbol of the refugees’ plight and memory – that transforms into a tiny theatre. There, the pieces of Antigone’s life are replayed using everyday objects, puppets, and cardboard figures. None of these objects is neutral: a scarf, a mirror, a lamp, or a figure – all participate in the making of a world of shadows and memories, where myth blends with personal experience.

The performance takes the form of a fairy tale, both spoken and sung, presented by two puppeteer-performers. One “sculpts” light and figures, giving form to the representatives of power and the heroes of the tragedy, while the other embodies Antigone, enriching the narration with the experience of Iranian traditional storytelling (“Naqqāli”) and her own personal trajectory.

The performance is presented in French, Persian, and Greek.