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Scene Study prepares you to perform key scenes for your theater class or audition. We've got all the information you need for a great performance.
Excerpt from Dialogue in Antigone: Haemon, Creon
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Understanding the Given Circumstances
- Written in the fifth century BCE, Antigone is the final play of The Oedipus Plays, a trilogy by the great Greek dramatist Sophocles. It takes place in the ancient city of Thebes.
- Haemon is the son of Creon, the ruler of Thebes. He loves Antigone and plans to marry her.
- Creon has arrested and imprisoned Antigone for a crime she committed. Antigone faces a possible execution.
- Antigone’s crime is that she tried to bury her dead brother, Polynices. Creon had forbidden the burial of the treasonous Polynices, who had led a foreign army into Thebes with the intention of conquering it.
- Burial rites were extremely important in ancient Greece, with powerful religious connotations. Earlier in the play, Antigone fiercely defends her decision as morally just: even though she breaks Creon’s edict, she obeys a higher law.
- The rules governing filial piety would normally put Haemon in a subservient role, even if Creon was not an absolute ruler with dictatorial impulses. Haemon speaking up puts him at great risk.
- For more on the given circumstances, see the SparkNotes Q & A Section on Antigone.
Blocking and Movement
In theater, blocking is the process of planning the actors’ physical movements and positions. Be sure to show respect and establish trust when working with scene partners. As you prepare to block this scene, ask yourself the following questions:
- Although the play does not specify where this scene takes place, the scene involves an argument between a father and a son. How intimate is the space that they are in? Is it a public or private argument? How does either choice affect the way the characters speak?
- Haemon refers to the Thebans as a political force when speaking critically of his father’s style of rule. Where on the stage are Haemon and Thebans located? How can the audience be implicated in or connected to this story?
- Both Creon and Haemon refer to Antigone in this scene. She is in prison and could face execution. Where is the prison in relationship to where the men are standing, and how does the proximity (or distance) of Antigone affect how they speak of her?
- Are there moments when Haemon fears for his own life? How does he show it in his words and in his actions?
- When Haemon and Creon begin to threaten and insult each other, how immediate is the threat of physical violence?
Meaning in Heightened Language
Sophocles’s plays pose a particular set of challenges to the modern performer and audience. How can you convey the incredibly high stakes of the situation to a modern audience? Start by asking yourself the following questions:
- Creon says to Haemon, “Talk not of rights; thou spurn’st the due of Heaven.” The gods, and what they want, are an integral part of the play. How can the performer imbue the word “Heaven” with the power it deserves?
- In most of the scene, Creon and Haemon exchange single lines back and forth. How rapidly do they answer each other’s questions? How sharp are the exchanges? How can you change your inflections so the ping-pong rhythm doesn’t feel too predictable?
- At the end of this scene, the structure of the language changes; Creon and Haemon each have a four-line section. Does it sound different than the characters’ previous lines? What changes in the scene make this more expansive language necessary for each character? How can you dramatize this difference?
Full Dialogue: Haemon, Creon
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