Kenneth Cavander‘s translation & adaptation of the ancient Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophokles, now playing at the Antaeus Theatre Company, is a confused but well-acted production with clunky sound design that unfortunately uses West Asian architecture, set, and music for its aesthetics without hiring any West Asian creatives or actors to tell the story.

Antigone’s decision to oppose her uncle Kreon’s edict and bury her brother’s body sets into motion a series of events that will challenge the bonds of family, law, and justice. Kenneth Cavander (The Curse of Oedipus) returns to Antaeus in a powerful new adaptation of Sophokles’ Antigone. Directed by Andy Wolk, this Greek tragedy delves deep into the clash between duty to the state and loyalty to one’s kin.

It’s unfortunately quite common to see Western art work often appropriate other cultures for their stories without actually having the people from that culture be represented in a significant way. It is unfortunate then that under the direction of Andy Wolk, I was constantly bothered throughout the whole play why this Antaeus production went through great lengths to have West Asian music, set design, and aesthetics without actually hiring any West Asian actors and creatives be part of this. Instead, the characters are represented as the U.S. military which doesn’t quite make sense considering that that they are not supposed to be invaders occupying a foreign land.

Antaeus does attempt to justify this by hiring a good number of global majority actors (none of them are SWANA) for some of the most significant roles, most notably Linda Park as Antigone. With a vast majority of the cast being an Antaeus company member, it begs to question why the theatre company did not open up auditions to non-members, especially SWANA artists, when they are going out of their way to tell a story that should include them in the first place.

For the most part, the acting was well done across the board with the exception of a few actors who made it very obvious that they were acting. The most perplexing part of the play unfortunately came when Kaci Hamilton took a turn as the fortune teller character Tiresias with a Jamaican (???) accent. Not only did it take me out of the play completely, it painfully reminded me that white people were in charge of this play while poorly mish moshing multiple global majority culture elements without much thought.

The production for the most part moved well with inspired lighting design from Jared A. Sayeg that created some magnificent tableaus for several of the scenes. The sound design and music editing however could have benefited from subtlety as there were many moments that laid it on pretty thick with its clunkiness.

I suppose many will see this production as having urgent relevance considering it’s a classic tale of tyranny and hubris that holds an unfortunate reflection to our current U.S. administration. And I suppose that by having the play be set in West Asia, it might suggest a commentary on the ongoing illegal war waged on Iran and Lebanon. “Might” is the key word as where it stands currently, the West Asian setting is only used as a exotic backdrop that holds meaningless weight and significance.

I’m a bit disappointed with this latest production from Antaeus Theatre Company as more often than not, I am always a fan of their work. That being said, I can see many enjoying this and not be so bothered by the erasure of SWANA representation like I was. Antigone will be playing till June 15 at the Antaeus Theatre Company, located on 110 East Broadway Glendale, CA 91205. Tickets can be bought here.