In my opinion, the British version of Antigone (1974) focuses on the theme of feminism and how it is over-powered by power and dominance through the characters of Creon, Antigone and Ismene.
When Antigone enters the room, anxiety is clearly visible on her face however, when the audience first hears her speak up about her plan, our first impression of her changes from a nervous/anxious woman to a fearless character who is determined to fulfill her responsibility as a daughter (since back then in ancient times, the daughters or women in general are responsible for the burial and funeral of their family members and a person who is not buried properly into the ground is considered to be a sin to the Gods). Antigone is the only character in the play that is willing to go against the rules given by the King to do what is right and this shows how Antigone stands up for herself and does not care about the consequences she will face if she gets caught.
On the other hand, we have Ismene, who is the opposite of Antigone. Unlike her sister, Ismene obeys Creon's rules of forbidding anyone to bury the 'betrayer', Polynices, as she does not want to be charged and punished (by death).
It is Ismene's character that displays how feminism is over-powered by power because in the play, we know that Ismene promised Antigone that her secret will be safe and that Ismene will not tell a soul however, this makes Ismene seem like a ...coward compared to her sister. Not only that, it highlights the extent to which the power and dominance of King Creon stops one from not committing a sin to the Gods.
Creon is portrayed as a domineering king who has the absolute power over the city and people of Thebes. In the beginning of the show, the audience can sense that Creon is a powerful ruler due to the background setting where we can see that there are about 6 portraits of hims with his eyebrows squinting together making him seem like the type of person who is not easily pleased. While Antigone and Ismene were having their secret conversation, the camera zooms out to show the whole view of the room where we can see a portrait of Creon staring directly at the sisters as if he was watching over them and furious by Antigone's plan which is shown through his squinting eyebrows. Although Creon has not appeared in this scene yet, the audience already has an idea of how Creon is going to react when he finds out about Antigone's 'crime'.
Q3) Which version did you like the most and for what specific reasons?
hhOverall, the Greek version was able to capture my attention as I was more intrigued and entertained by the show due to its language, because I had to keep reading the subtitles, I could not take my eyes away from the screen as I was scared that if I did, I wouldn't be able to understand what's happening/going to happen. The Greek language itself had that suspense to it and I really enjoyed just listening to it whereas for the English version, the costumes of all characters were plain and simple and definitely not suitable for that time period so after the first part, I found myself just listening to the audio and only shifting back to the video every now and then. The language in the English version was modern and un-Greek like even if it was translation since it had many phrases that were appalling to me because it felt like they were mocking how tragic the story was and thought that their use of comic relief would be suitable. Another reason why I preferred the Greek version is their costumes and the actual main character of Antigone. Eventhough the costumes looked more like space time than the Greek time, it was aspiring to see the cultural aspect of Greek being brought into the show and as for the actress who played Antigone, Irene Papas showed more emotion and kept the audience hanging on to her to see what she's going to say or do next whereas Juliet Stephenson's facial expressions were stiff and emotionless. I think the only emotion I got from her was anger hence there was no personal connection and it became quite dull to watch.
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