ANTIGONE EXITS
Minerva Theatre
★★★★
“a thought-provoking and often deeply moving piece of theatre”
Sophocles’ Antigone is more than 2,000 years old, but its central conflict remains remarkably immediate. Antigone’s brother has died in a civil war and her uncle, Creon, now king, has forbidden anyone to bury his body. Antigone is determined to defy him, whatever the consequences.
Antigone Exits, Nina Segal’s adaptation, brings this ancient tragedy into the present day, connecting its questions about war, duty, authority, grief and the treatment of the dead with contemporary experiences. It is a refreshing production that finds an unusual way to make a very old story feel newly relevant.
Seven performers in casual contemporary clothes inhabit the characters, but they also function as something like a Greek chorus. They speak collectively, narrate events and give voice to thoughts that might otherwise remain unspoken. At other points, some step completely outside the drama, moving into the centre of the circle, picking up a microphone and sharing a modern story or experience.
This shifting approach works particularly well. A line such as ‘her child’s questions fill her head’ allows the performers to move beyond simply acting the story and into a shared narration of what the characters are thinking and feeling. The contemporary testimonies then broaden the themes of the tragedy. Some draw direct parallels with current conflicts, including a harrowing recounting of the bodies of five babies recovered in Gaza, while others are more personal, touching on family, childhood, mortality and loss. Max Bennett’s meta-reflection on Antigone through the prism of personal tragedy is particularly powerful and moving.
The seven performers work particularly well as an ensemble. Nina Cassells brings determination and vulnerability to Antigone, while Max Bennett makes Creon a compelling figure, convinced that his decisions are necessary. Anushka Chakravarti (Ismene), Brandon Bassir (Eteocles and Haemon), Lizzy Watts (Eurydice), Melody Chikakane Brown (Tiresias) and Testimony Adegbite (Polyneices and Messenger) all contribute to a company that works particularly well as a collective, moving fluidly between character, chorus and contemporary storyteller. The doubling is especially effective: as Eteocles and Polyneices die, Bassir and Adegbite move into their other roles, reinforcing the sense of a story continually being re-told by those left behind.
Alex Lowde’s design is striking in its simplicity. The stage is painted yellow, with a huge white sphere, rather like a quarter of an eggshell, suspended above it. The actors are already sitting inside it as the audience arrives, and they return to it during the performance, using three boulders to move between the sphere and the floor. There are no conventional sets or props. At one point Antigone pours a black liquid into a perfect circle on the floor, which slowly spreads throughout the performance as the actors carefully avoid it, until they don’t.
The visual effect becomes increasingly potent as the tragedy unfolds. The spreading liquid gradually takes over more of the space, becoming an increasingly powerful image as the body count rises. There is also a striking dance sequence, choreographed by James Cousins, to David Bowie’s ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide’. Uncomfortable to watch and deliberately disruptive, it throws you out of the mood but remains a memorable moment.
Jeff James’s direction keeps the shifts between tragedy, narration and contemporary testimony fluid, without allowing the production to become static. At just 70 minutes, it is a concentrated piece of theatre, but there is plenty here to take away and think about.
There are moments when the contemporary parallels are deliberately direct, but the production is at its most effective when it allows the connections between the ancient story and the present day to emerge through the performers’ experiences.
Segal has created an Antigone that feels both recognisable and unexpected. Its ancient questions remain, but the ways in which they are asked make this a thought-provoking and often deeply moving piece of theatre.
ANTIGONE EXITS
Minerva Theatre
Reviewed on 1st October 2026
by Ellen Cheshire
Photography by Andy Paradise
