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<\/p>\nEvelina Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s \u201cAntigone: In the Language of Kings\u201d receives a theatrically entrancing staging at the Getty Villa\u2019s Outdoor Theater in a production co-produced with Latino Theater Company.<\/p>\n
The adaptation resets Sophocles\u2019 tragedy to Aztec culture in a transposition that is both visually and musically enlivening. If the drama is oversimplified, it nonetheless makes for a gripping spectacle.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not easy to find analogies that can reanimate the importance of burial rites to a modern audience. The production\u2019s creative team, led by the inexhaustibly inventive director Jos\u00e9 Luis Valenzuela, returns us to a world where the dead are owed sacred duties and the living are fearful to renege on this basic human responsibility. <\/p>\n
The incense-filled production \u2014 conducted in English, Spanish and Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs), with English and Spanish supertitles \u2014 proceeds like a pageant. Headdress-clad warriors clash on the battlefield. A masked chorus, moving with the coordination of a Broadway musical ensemble, gives voice to the anxiety and grief of the collective. A statuesque figure of death, trailing black fabric, sweeps up the casualties of war with the efficiency of a human vacuum.<\/p>\n
In Sophocles, Antigone, Oedipus\u2019 headstrong daughter, defies the edict issued by her uncle Creon, the newly deputized king, declaring that her slain brother Polynices is an enemy of the state and therefore ineligible for burial. For Antigone this is an imposition of political power over divine law, and she puts her life on the line to uphold her obligation to her family and faith.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The ensemble of \u201cAntigone: In the Language of Kings\u201d at the Getty Villa Museum Outdoor Classical Theater.<\/p>\n
(Cassia Davis \/ \u00a9 2026 J. Paul Getty Trust)<\/p>\n
The German philosopher Hegel considered Sophocles\u2019 \u201cAntigone\u201d the high-water mark of tragedy for the way it dramatizes the collision between two equally justified moral positions. Creon, representing the claims of the polis over the clan, cannot be dismissed outright. Nor can Antigone, whose all-consuming identification with her cause renders her indifferent to other obligations, be adopted as a user-friendly hero.<\/p>\n
Tragedy arises from the one-sidedness of their claims. Antigone loses her life and Creon, for all intents and purposes, destroys his own, suffering the deaths of his most cherished loved ones.<\/p>\n
Hegel\u2019s reading of \u201cAntigone\u201d illustrates his thesis-antithesis-synthesis view of dialectical progress. Sophocles conceived his play as part of a trilogy with a larger metaphysical design. But even if Hegel\u2019s interpretation would have seemed off the mark to him, Antigone and Creon are too complex to reduce to a schematic argument.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez simplifies these antagonists. Her Ant\u00edkona (a formidable Esperanza Am\u00e9rica) reveals her softer side even when rejecting her sister, Ixmene (Alexis B. Santiago), for not having the courage to zealously join her fight.<\/p>\n
Tlahtoani Klion (C\u00e1stulo Guerra), Emperor of Tenochtitlan, is a ruler so intoxicated with his own authority that he\u2019s clearly courting rebuke from the gods. It\u2019s only a matter of time before his hubris is slapped down. <\/p>\n
The acting is theatrically robust, though not always subtle. I wondered if ambiguity had been outlawed along with the funeral rites of Ant\u00edkona\u2019s warrior brother Polynices. The bold clarity of the performances was energizing, but the wailing sometimes sounded like parody grief.<\/p>\n
The outsize nature of the production invites overacting. And Ric Salinas, who plays Chachalacani, humorously obliges, bringing his Culture Clash vaudeville skills to the role of the sentry who\u2019s caught between the rock of Klion\u2019s tyranny and his fellow feeling for Ant\u00edkona\u2019s sympathetic cause.<\/p>\n
Strong performances are elicited from Jos\u00e9 Eduardo Moreno, who plays Klion\u2019s son Hemon, Ant\u00edkona\u2019s fianc\u00e9, and Zilah Mendoza, who plays Cihuatlahtoani Euridice, Klion\u2019s wife. Their portrayals, mixing ferocious strength with stark vulnerability, make the tragedy\u2019s pileup of bodies at the end all the more piercing.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The ensemble of \u201cAntigone: In the Language of Kings\u201d at the Getty Villa Museum Outdoor Classical Theater.<\/p>\n
(Cassia Davis \/ \u00a9 2026 J. Paul Getty Trust)<\/p>\n
Am\u00e9rica\u2019s Ant\u00edkona is as unyielding as any Antigone I\u2019ve seen. It\u2019s a commanding portrayal, but I wish the production didn\u2019t shrink from its protagonist\u2019s fierceness. The obdurate side of the character is lessened with a gesture Ant\u00edkona bestows on Ixmene \u2014 a reassurance that even though she\u2019s a revolutionary, she\u2019s still an affectionate sister. <\/p>\n
Sophocles is made of harsher stuff. Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s adaptation is anxious to turn tragedy into a sermon, offering theatergoers moral solace where Sophocles leaves his audience in a contemplative state of stunned silence.<\/p>\n
But the staging makes up for the dramatic shortfall. Valenzuela masterly orchestrates the mise-en-sc\u00e8ne. The majestic costumes of Catarina Copelli, invoking a rich brocaded world on the brink of disappearance, might be the real superstar.<\/p>\n
Fran\u00e7ois-Pierre Couture\u2019s scenic design is mesmerizing without ever being overbearing. \u201cLee\u201d Xinyuan Li\u2019s lighting heightens the sense of theatrical foreboding. Yee Eun Nam\u2019s projections inject into this transient world a welcome subtlety.<\/p>\n
Urbanie Lucero\u2019s choreography and movement direction maintain the production\u2019s graceful poise. The musicians, discreetly performing at the back of the stage under the guidance of Mesoamerican instruments director Christopher Garc\u00eda, charge the air with percussive Indigenous wonder.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntigone: In the Language of Kings\u201d marks the Getty Villa\u2019s 20th anniversary of reinventing classical tragedy for our time. This gorgeous staging makes me ardently wish that the theater extends the tradition for at least another 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evelina Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s \u201cAntigone: In the Language of Kings\u201d receives a theatrically entrancing staging at the Getty Villa\u2019s Outdoor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[33267,181684,3813,339,181687,181688,18104,181689,48,52,51,14034,47,50,49,5927,181683,225,181685,181686,8074],"class_list":["post-460787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-antigone","tag-antikona","tag-cause","tag-death","tag-evelina-fernandez","tag-getty-villa","tag-grief","tag-hegel","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-language","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-production","tag-sophocles-tragedy","tag-state","tag-tlahtoani-klion","tag-uncle-creon","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}