Antigone Drama Analysis

In putting together the piece that we performed before our friends and classmates, I believe that we did not consider the enormous task that lay before us. I think that we began the process with heedless optimism in our ability to create and successfully perform a show largely of our own creation; I know for my part I shared this optimism. However, looking back at the process as a whole I think that the problems in the final performance were mirrored throughout the development of production. One of the major issues throughout was widely unequal engagement and care. During the process of choosing the piece for final performance the class was deeply split between those with strong feelings and those without. Furthermore, among those with a …show more content…
Chiefly, I think I learned, and I hope we all learned, that there is a reason that these plays were written as tragedies and not comedies. Namely, that comedy is ill-adapted to convey the messages of these great works, especially mediocrely performed comedy. The message of, say, Antigone is lost if satyrs distract the audience; that of Prometheus Bound if satyrs heckle intentionally bad actors; etc. etc. Our performance had no message. This was most clearly evident in scenes such as Alcestis; it became purely political, losing all sense of the message of the power of friendship. To entertain and audience is indeed an important task, but it is hardly an end goal. This performance has taught me that much. I doubt that any of the comic scenes we performed had any real impact, but I have no doubt that the lone serious scene may have and definitely would have if not sandwich between comic scenes. The best comedy might be able to convey a message, but even a mediocre tragedy