rish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney’s dazzling adaptation of Antigone brings life and breath to Sophocles. First written as a response to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it stands today as a timely reminder of the conflict between the defense of state security and the protection of basic human rights. It is a brilliant contemporary poet’s possession of a classic.
After the War of the Seven Against Thebes, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, learns that her brothers have killed each other, having been forced onto opposing sides of the battle. When Creon, King of Thebes, grants burial to one brother but not the other, Antigone’s defiance can only end in ruin.