The Antigone, Mom and Dad Productions, at Heartland Studio Theater. No play packs more themes or admits more interpretations than Sophocles’ Antigone–not even prequel Oedipus Rex. There’s no simple solution to the clash Antigone experiences between familial and political loyalties, and the play’s myriad subconflicts–rationality vs. religion, state vs. individual, public vs. personal obligation–echo the issues of the emergent European nation-state. Often the work’s knotted ambiguities get reduced to a battle between virtuous sister and villainous king, but this evenhanded production avoids that trap. As Antigone, Jill Sheridan registers both nobility and self-involvement; as Kreon, Joe Feliciano elucidates the troublingly sensible underpinnings of his character’s protofascism. Both are destroyed by the same madness: despite consciously placing their principles above life itself, somehow neither can comprehend anyone else doing the same.
