In this lesson we explored the second half of this huge scene with Creon and Antigone in which he tells her about the true nature of her brothers and explains the fact that neither was really worth the grand memorial but a decision was made and it's meaningless, from this angle, Antigone is almost fully persuaded that her vigorous attempts at justice are pointless and foolish and that maybe it would be better to carry on living. We staged this so that Antigone is sat neutrally upstage whilst Creon wanders around, persuading her to do the right thing, he is animated and passionate about what he believes because he is so desperate for Antigone to see what should be done, once persuaded, Antigone stands up obediently to go to bed quietly. This is until Creon mentions happiness which is a concept so infuriating and ridiculous to Antigone that all Creons best efforts are diminished instantly with the mention of this one word. As this shift in atmosphere occurs, Antigone stops heading towards the door to go to bed and begins frantically moving around the stage - going round in circles manically whilst shouting and pouring out her absurd views towards Creon and the audience because at the mention of the word 'happy', Creon lost any control over the situation he once had and Antigone's dramatic ridiculous side is unleashed one final time. She manipulates the stage in an insane way whilst Creon desperately tries to grasp any piece of sanity he can from the situation, chasing her slowly and calmly to try and restore order.
At the beginning of this speech from Creon, I am grabbed by him and thrown face first into the mud, so she is physically hurt and shocked by his immense aggression. For my line after that in which I say 'I don't want to. It's all very well for you, but I'm not here to understand. I'm here to say no to you, and to die', our director has said that for this line we step out of character, referencing the meta theatre aspect of the performance and make it as though this line is referring to the Actress' entitelment to fulfill the role. The few times I tried this I struggled with it hugely, it is definitely something I will have to work on: finding a way to deliver the lines that isn't in character as Antigone but not as myself, as someone in between. 
Here we see Creon trying to reveal how little Antigone knew of her brothers and how they weren't really that close at all. She does however seem to have at least one special memory of him, yet Creon pounces on that and makes a fool of her for it and begins to describe the many ways in which Polynices was an awful human (and Eteocles too) which Antigone weakly decides to refuse.
Then he drills into her about how her one true aim in life is pointless and holds no meaning, this speech gets to her and she is made vulnerable and quite tearful. For a moment Creon, Antigone and the audience believe that Creon has won this huge argument once and for all yet with what would have been his final speech, Creon makes a huge mistake and undoes all his hard work.
We are yet to completely stage this final section in which Antigone takes control for the final time and makes this huge speech, although we have decided that when she talks about the 'happy woman Antigone will grow into' she will be at her brothers grave, feeling the dirt and pieces of body in quite an insane and uncomfortable way. In the notes section of my script it states that in this speech she 'pours out her hatred of compromise, and particularly of accepting that the fires of youthful idealism - and of passionate love - do not burn fiercely forever. She will refuse to live for fear that Haemon will become 'just a conventional spouse and learn to say yes like the rest' '. This shows how intense Antigone's wishes are, how she longs to die before life could possibly become boring, she talks about how life has to be as 'wonderful as it was when I was little' which maybe shows her nostalgia of her younger years, in which everything was a new experience and she enjoyed life to an enormous extent, she would stay up late just to live a little more of the day and cry because there were so many plants and insects that it was impossible to catch them all (as she explains in an earlier scene with Ismene when she thinks about whether she would prefer to die). 
At the beginning of this speech from Creon, I am grabbed by him and thrown face first into the mud, so she is physically hurt and shocked by his immense aggression. For my line after that in which I say 'I don't want to. It's all very well for you, but I'm not here to understand. I'm here to say no to you, and to die', our director has said that for this line we step out of character, referencing the meta theatre aspect of the performance and make it as though this line is referring to the Actress' entitelment to fulfill the role. The few times I tried this I struggled with it hugely, it is definitely something I will have to work on: finding a way to deliver the lines that isn't in character as Antigone but not as myself, as someone in between. Here we see Creon trying to reveal how little Antigone knew of her brothers and how they weren't really that close at all. She does however seem to have at least one special memory of him, yet Creon pounces on that and makes a fool of her for it and begins to describe the many ways in which Polynices was an awful human (and Eteocles too) which Antigone weakly decides to refuse. Then he drills into her about how her one true aim in life is pointless and holds no meaning, this speech gets to her and she is made vulnerable and quite tearful. For a moment Creon, Antigone and the audience believe that Creon has won this huge argument once and for all yet with what would have been his final speech, Creon makes a huge mistake and undoes all his hard work. We are yet to completely stage this final section in which Antigone takes control for the final time and makes this huge speech, although we have decided that when she talks about the 'happy woman Antigone will grow into' she will be at her brothers grave, feeling the dirt and pieces of body in quite an insane and uncomfortable way. In the notes section of my script it states that in this speech she 'pours out her hatred of compromise, and particularly of accepting that the fires of youthful idealism - and of passionate love - do not burn fiercely forever. She will refuse to live for fear that Haemon will become 'just a conventional spouse and learn to say yes like the rest' '. This shows how intense Antigone's wishes are, how she longs to die before life could possibly become boring, she talks about how life has to be as 'wonderful as it was when I was little' which maybe shows her nostalgia of her younger years, in which everything was a new experience and she enjoyed life to an enormous extent, she would stay up late just to live a little more of the day and cry because there were so many plants and insects that it was impossible to catch them all (as she explains in an earlier scene with Ismene when she thinks about whether she would prefer to die).
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