Antigone

It was a cold Brisbane night. The shivering crowd tentatively descended the scaffold-staircase into the brick-lined belly of the Spring Hill Reservoir. The venue was literally and colloquially speaking, very cool for opening night of Antigone. Thankfully the Heartbeast Theatre production team had left a few blankets about for the frosty audience.

Cast were already in situ, some working the crowd, others silent and focused. Set in the round, the small stage that sat in the centre was easy to see. The other four stage areas in each corner of the venue were plagued by sight-line issues. This was especially problematic during the introduction, delivered by Eleonora Ginardi as Eurydice. As she pointed to each character to introduce them, many couldn’t be seen. That wasn’t the only issue bothering the opening monologue.

Sadly, the important plot set ups couldn’t be comprehended as Eurydice was inexplicably speaking on mic. Every other character spoke off mic and could be easily heard and understood. Spring Hill Reservoir’s layout prevented sound from properly travelling from the amp to the area in which we sat. We caught a few snatches of Eurydice’s opening narrative, when we were able to lip read, but because it was set in the round, that wasn’t always possible.

On to some good points though; Bek Schmidt was excellent as Antigone. She was focused, committed and believable. She even pushed out some real tears when arguing with Creon about the fate of her deceased brother. She did an excellent job of delivering rafts of emotionally charged dialogue.

It’s important that people support independent theatre because it’s vital for the health of the industry. It would also give shows like this the chance to tweak what, at this stage, is a prolix script that could use a dramaturge’s kind touch. 

Patrick Farrelly was very convincing as Creon, but suffered from some overkill due to a few epically long speeches. He was believably angry and confounded. His physical conflicts with Antigone were frightening.

Lighting design by Keegan O’Neill was lovely. Some of the costume choices were questionable; players dressed in a mix of 40s, 50s, ancient Greek, 70s punk and modern garb. That said, there were some really beautiful visual moments in the play such as when Antigone and Nurse (Linda Shapcott) folded sheets and when Antigone was tied in five large ropes.

Brodie Greenhalgh did a fine job of the role of Haemon, as did Jane Schon as Ismene. Both played particularly well opposite Bek Schmidt, who managed to lift the performances of those on stage with her, showing she truly deserved her leading lady status.

Kiesten McCauley