The Search for Simplicity An Antigone Check-In with Director Rachel Botchan

The Resident Acting Company’s staged reading series has been put on temporary hold, but that doesn’t mean our artists aren’t still plugging away! Recently, dramaturg Kate Farrington “Zoomed” with RAC member and director of our upcoming reading of Antigone to talk about Greek tragedy, the fascinating young woman at the center of this play, and what art means in challenging times. 

KF:Well, here we are in our respective homes chatting about our someday-it’s-going-to-happen reading of Antigone, which you will be directing.  

RB:We’ll get there!

KF: I wanted to start by asking about your onstage work with Greek theatre, because you’ve performed in several of these tragedies. 

RB: I’ve performed in a handful of Greek plays, and they’ve always been among the most challenging pieces I’ve worked on. Also among the most spiritual, which makes sense because they are based in ritual and religion. I’m not a religious person, but when performing them you can sometimes reach this unique place as an actor that feels almost like an “out of body” experience. I’ve always loved that about Greek theatre.

Being part of the chorus in a Greek play can be a particularly interesting experience. Obviously, we don’t know exactly how the chorus performed originally. We have some idea, but we can’t know 100%. But what we do know about the use of dance and song often informs how we approach the chorus today, and I just love the movement and the music when that’s part of a production. But it’s really hard to pull off!

KF: Yes, it’s very rare—and that makes it all the more fulfilling when it happens—that you see a really memorable production, one where they absolutely nail it. Are there any productions of Greek plays you’ve seen that had that kind of impact on you?

RB: The one that I always think about is the Medea that Fiona Shaw performed [2002]. That was incredible. What struck me about it, first of all, was the humor. She got so many laughs as Medea! Real laughs—not uncomfortable or “making fun of it” laughs, but really cathartic laughs. 

And it was such a beautiful production; so clear both emotionally and story-wise. It was also so modern. They weren’t doing a really contemporary translation that I recall, but the way it was performed and the acting style felt modern in a good way

The Pearl Theatre did Antigone a couple times over the years [once with RAC member Robin Leslie Brown as Antigone, once with RAC member Jolly Abraham in the role], but I’m afraid I missed those productions. The only time I’ve seen it onstage was at the Irish Repertory a few years ago. Antigone was played by Rebekah Brockman who I worked with at The Pearl Theatre a few years later in A Taste of Honey. She was great! 

 But now that I’m thinking about it, I haven’t seen that many Greek tragedies—you don’t often get that much of an opportunity. 

KF: Which is one of the reasons I think it’s so fun that the RAC is exploring them right now. This is your first time directing for the RAC, right? 

RB: I’ve directed at AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Art) where I’m a teacher: Romeo and Juliet and The Diary of Anne Frank. Brad and I had talked last year about the possibility of me directing something for the RAC but the scheduling didn’t work out. Then this year when Antigone came up, he asked if I’d be interested. 

KF: What about Antigone attracts you as a director?

RB: I’ve always loved the play. In fact, the audition piece I used for all the conservatory schools I applied to when I went to college was from Jean Anouilh’s [translation/adaptation of] Antigone. So, I’ve always been drawn to this young woman who is so powerful and such a rebel. She’s also got this deep passion and love for her brother and loyalty to her family—just the vastness of her emotions is incredible. 

She’s so single-minded. And I don’t mean that in a negative way at all. I mean, talk about an “action” for an actor to play! I think as an actor I always look for that in a play or a character—it’s very clear what she’s there to do. I think we all admire that kind of strength and that kind of single-mindedness. The way that she questions authority and doesn’t ever look back is admirable. We all kind of wish to be like that sometimes. 

There are also other moments as well where our fascination comes from being a little shocked by that single-mindedness. We think: ‘Why is she so willing to give her life for this?’ But that’s the dramatic scope that makes it a tragedy—the stakes are so high.

KF: And it’s not like she walks blindly into that, or that she meant to get away with her rebellion and then fate turned on her. She walks in fully aware of the danger she’s in. Which is kind of cool. 

RB: Yes, right from the start she says –and this is really interesting in such a young person—she effectively says: ‘I’ve always known I was going to die.’ She has a real sense of her own mortality and she’s not afraid of it. So, it’s a short trip for her to then say, ‘Why shouldn’t I die now for this? I have nothing to live for. This is my time.’ And she says that right from the beginning.

I also think one of the things that draws me to her, that makes it so personal for me and I think for many people, is her love and her loyalty towards her family and to her brother specifically, When the play begins she’s grieving, she’s in deep mourning. And that adds to the stakes as well. 

KF: That’s true of Creon too. He’s coming into the story with his own experience of loss and of having just brought the city through a war and recovering from that. So, we see Antigone’s passion, but we also have Creon feeling just as deeply about his choices from a very different perspective. 

RB: And I think the argument that they have throughout the play is a very modern one. It’s all about where our loyalties lie, even in death. Who do we owe the most loyalty to? There’s a line Antigone has: “I was born to join in love, not hate—that is my nature.” She doesn’t care about all the politics or the war that’s been going on. That’s her function, just to love. 

KF: It’s always interesting when really basic questions of human civilization and how it functions—in this case our obligations to the state versus our family obligations—get pitted against each other without an easy answer.

Is there any scene or moment in particular in Antigone that you are really excited to dig into with a group of actors? One that gives you a strong sense of how you want to approach it?

RB:Because it’s a reading it’s a little different than if we were doing a full production of the play. For me it’s more about making the story and the relationships clear and making the language understandable. But I think—I really love the first scene of the play, between Antigone and Ismene. It’s so evocative of a specific time and a place. I can just so easily see these two young women, these two sisters talking, and in my mind it’s a very conversational moment—the exact opposite of what we typically think of as Greek tragedy. 

KF:It almost feels like they are talking in hushed voices

RB:Yes, it’s almost conspiratorial. And it’s also great that things are being revealed and decisions made right at the start, so it’s not just exposition, it’s active. It’s a very intimate, truthful scene between two sisters about family. I feel like that’s my “in” for the piece and how I want to approach it. 

It just came to me as we’re talking about this scene that it’s also two women starting a play and that’s kind of unique in Greek tragedy. 

KF:I’m trying to think now if there’s another time where two women start a play like that. 

RB:And two women not talking about a love interest!

KF:It passes the Bechdel test! I mean, it’s a really depressing scene, but it passes!

So, it’s fascinating when art and life bump into each other. And you and I are having this conversation in late March of 2020 in the middle of this very fraught time. With everything going on, are you reading the play differently than you were a month ago? Are things about it jumping out at you differently?

RB: It’s not a direct correlation to Antigone necessarily, but I think everything has a particular weight right now. For me, and probably for a lot of people, art becomes even more important in moments like this. Just today I was reading in bed, and it was an escape. You feel like these works still exist no matter what is going on around us in the world, and we can still find solace and comfort in them

I’m homeschooling my son right now, and we were just reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream together. Then we watched a filmed version of a production that the Globe did a few years ago. And we were laughing and crying—and I thought how beautiful that in this moment when we’re all quarantined in our homes that we can still have art, and that these works exist throughout history regardless of what’s happening at any given time. Just the idea that we still have these things to cling to and to escape to. 

And it’s not just…I love Netflix, but with really great art it’s not just a trivial escape. It’s a profound way to connect with humanity.

KF: So, one last question. The Resident Acting Company as a whole has been spending a lot of time with Greek plays in the last year or so, and I know you’ve been involved in several of those readings. 

RB: I was in the Heracles reading, and I was with the group that performed Trojan Women at Rikers’ Island, which was an incredible and intense experience. 

KF: Has your thinking about or approach to these plays changed during the last year?

RB: I think I’ve found that, in terms of a performance style, the simpler your approach the better. The situations and the language really do speak for themselves without us needing to layer on too much. You don’t have to treat it as this huge overblown thing. Approach the play looking for truthful simplicity.