‘Antigone,’ a play focusing on women’s empowerment during a trivial time during our history in the Vietnam War era, was featured by the University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance this past weekend.
Originally written by Jean Anouilh, ‘Antigone’ raises questions about what visibility means, how we identify with ourselves, and take up space.
In this adaptation set in 1969 Wyoming, audiences saw a performance focused on gender roles during the women’s rights movement, autonomy, and the protest era all with the backdrop of Laramie, WY, during the Vietnam War.
“We did research through the American Heritage Center,” Scott Tedmon-Jones, an associate professor at UW and Scenic Designer for ‘Antigone’ said. “This is a world of war. It’s a world of conflict, prior to the start of the war and after the play ends, and we wanted to represent that.”
The set of ‘Antigone’ focused heavily on Laramie’s scenery, including fence posts that evoked memories from audience members.. The set also included multiple “columns”, that were evocative of Greek theater and the open space of the mountains overlooking Laramie.
“We also had this idea of the West and saloons in smaller towns in Wyoming,” Tedmon-Jones said. “So the original design was just columns going across the front of the stage but it felt flat and it was not kinetic. And we decided we can change them, we can move them around.”
Audience members were surprised to see a kinetic, moving stage throughout the performance. The moving columns brought life and motion to the production that made it unlike many performances that audiences have seen in the past.
“I graduated from high school in 1969, and that was in the women’s movement,” Sue Peters, an audience member, said. “And I think I saw myself in Antigone. Because before that, women were not standing up for themselves. But that is no longer true. It being set in 1964 was perfect.”
‘Antigone’ revolves around major themes of bringing civil order, defying unjust laws, and finding yourself; calling out heavily to the civil and women’s rights eras that resonated heavily with audience members of all ages.
“I’m so inspired by the way the denial of oppression does not take the language of the oppressors,” Karson Potter, a current UW student and audience member, said.
“I think that was so visual to me in the set and in the costume design. Antigone is empowered. When she really has the most agency is when she is facing her life.”
The central underlying theme of women’s liberation is still relevant to this day. Every detail in ‘Antigone’ was methodically planned, even down to the costume design and allowing Anna McClow, who played Antigone, to wear pants; something that would have caused an outrage during the time period.
“She is standing up in the face of oppression by being empowered in her womanhood,” Potter said. “I want to congratulate both in the costume design and the set design, as well as the portrayal of the actors, the way that we were able to empathize also with some of those characters who are men in the way that they portrayed femininity as well.”
