‘Antigone’ at Calvin Center is too good to miss
By MILAN PAURICH
Special to The Vindicator
YOUNGSTOWN
Poor Antigone. The product of a wildly dysfunctional upbringing— her mother (Jocasta) and father (Oedipus) were actually, yikes!, mother and son — she’s sentenced to death by her uncle Creon for disobeying a royal edict not to bury the corpse of her brother Polynices who was slain by their brother Eteocles in a civil war to determine who would become the new Theban king. (Oedipus inconveniently died before naming an heir.)
And did I mention that Antigone also is engaged to her cousin Haemon, Creon’s only son? With this much inbreeding and internecine skullduggery afoot, it’s no wonder the ancient Greeks ultimately ceded their catbird seat to the Roman Empire. Next to this incestuous brood of power-crazed schemers, Caligula was a veritable piker.
An even bigger problem for Antigone is that she’s not even the lead character in her own play. King Creon actually has the largest role in Sophocles’ tragedy, and the Rust Belt Theater Company adaptation that opened Friday night does nothing to correct that centuries-old imbalance.
Fortunately for area theatergoers, Rust Belt’s “Antigone” is such a vigorously acted, tautly staged and robustly entertaining production that you don’t really care who’s on top. The concluding chapter in Rust Belt founder Robert Dennick Joki’s “Greek Trilogy” (“Electra” and “Medea” preceded it), “Antigone” finishes the summer festival with a bang. Or is that a gunshot?
Like Joki’s previous forays into classical Greek drama, “Antigone” takes as many artistic liberties with the original text as possible without ever forgetting what made them such iconic, enduring additions to the theatrical vernacular in the first place.
Once again, Joki has turned what could have been a creaky, moth-ridden bore into electrifying theater. From the ingenious black-on-black costume design to the mournful strains of opera playing between scenes to the remarkably apt in-the-round staging, “Antigone” has more creative juice and stylistic bravado than an entire season’s worth of conventional community-theater fare.
Joki seems to have an uncanny knack for attracting talent, and his “Antigone” is no exception. Candace DiLullo makes the beaten but unbowed title character such a fierce, prideful woman warrior that you half expect her to turn up in Joan of Arc’s suit of armor before the end of the play. It’s a wonderfully impassioned, exquisitely shaded performance on every level.
As the stubborn, fatally misguided Creon, Joki is a revelation. Best known for irony-laden musical comedy (“How the Drag Queen Stole Christmas,” “The Rocky Horror Show,” etc.), Joki proves himself to be one of the area’s most- skilled dramatic actors as well. (What I wouldn’t give to see him play Shakespeare’s Lear one day!)
In her one brief scene, Molly Galano tears a hole straight through your heart as blind soothsayer Tiresias. Also very good are Nicole Zayas (as Creon’s long-suffering wife, Euridice), Nathan Beagle (suitably explosive as Haemon) and David Munnell (Creon’s drolly funereal attendant). Even the less-seasoned performers (Kelly Sullivan’s Ismene, Rick Morrow’s Guard and young Max Thompkins as Tiresias’ squire) prove more than adequate under Joki’s skillful tutelage.
Just as in the previous Rust Belt “Greeks,” the set design features — and was inspired by — the work of a respected local artist. Tony Nicholas’ striking “What’s True” series sets the tone for the entire evening and complements the dramaturgy in artful, consistently surprising ways.
Anyone who even remotely cares about theater as an art form should make a beeline to the Calvin Center and discover why Rust Belt is currently the most exciting venue in town for live theater.
“Antigone” runs through next Saturday at the Calvin Center for the Arts. For reservations, call 330-507-2358.