 "Photo:")
Salt Lake Acting Company has recalled actor, writer and director Meg Gibson to Utah from New York City to direct two plays this season.
Gibson started as an acting student at the U in the 1970s. In the 1990s, She returned to Utah to direct at SLAC. This season, she is serving not only as a director, but she also co-wrote the play “Too Much Memory” with her husband Keith Reddin. “Too Much Memory” premiered at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival, where it received an Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Play.
The play tells us that it is “an adaptation of an adaptation of a translation.” It is based on Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy Antigone and Jean Anouilh’s political allegory of the same name from the 1940s.
As in the original, the body of Antigone’s brother has been left unburied outside of the city, and the new king, Creon, has ordered that it is not to be given proper burial rights.
Antigone’s brother is guilty of crimes against the state, but that does not deter Antigone from attempting to do right by her brother and bury his body, even if that means defying her uncle—the king—and subjecting herself to untold punishments.
Gibson’s version of Antigone is also a political allegory, inspired by America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the face of overwhelming opposition around the world to the war, the American government proceeded with the invasion. This left many with a feeling of helplessness, as if their voices were unheard.
In “Too Much Memory,” Antigone speaks for all who were ignored. She defies the state and before she is eventually silenced declares that others will rise up after she is gone.
The play poses dramatic questions to the audience: What are you willing to do to have your voice heard? What would you sacrifice?
The play has some unique aspects in its staging. As the audience enters the theater, the entire cast is onstage warming up, chatting on cell phones and playing cards. They are seated around the edges of a taped-out square that is in the middle of the stage. The play snaps to attention when Chorus, played by Lane Richens, addresses the audience and begins to detail what the audience should expect for the evening. When the action of the play begins, the audience starts to understand that any time a character is involved in the action, he or she will step inside the square.
At the heart of the play is a debate between Creon, played by Morgan Lund, and Antigone, played by Nicki Nixon, about the importance of obeying the law or obeying one’s conscience. The play does seem to have an agenda but in the spirit of rational political discourse, it gives fair and equal time to both sides of the argument. The play is driven by the emotionally charged performances of Nixon and Lund and anchored by the stability of Richen’s Character.
The play is essentially a call to action to overcome political disillusionment and follow one’s conscience in the political arena. Whether it succeeds is left to each individual.
Be the first to comment on this article!