"In portraying this tale of civic and private wills at loggerheads, Mr. van Hove’s 'Antigone' unfolds with the clinical detachment of a professor of anatomy cutting into a universal cadaver...'Antigone' is more narcotizing than upsetting. This is not for want of heavy emoting from the ensemble. Ms. Binoche, as the fatally rebellious daughter, and Patrick O’Kane, as her antagonist, Creon, can be found writhing in the depths of agony...Yet somehow they never grab us by the guts."
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"At its best, this production sweeps away 3000 years of knowledge to deliver us at the feet of angry gods. It's flawed, absolutely, but also too rare to miss...There's still a sense of haste in some of his choices. The fundamentals of the production, including the performances and treatment of Carson's ravishing text, are beautiful. But its framing is haphazard, particularly the ending, which threatens to unravel the mysteries already spun."
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"In van Hove’s telling, the play is less about character than justice. Whether you will appreciate that depends largely on whether you like your Greek tragedy emotional or cerebral. Apparently, you have to choose...This production does everything it possibly can to argue rather than move — or, at best, to move through arguing...Apparently as uninterested in psychology as he is in sympathy, van Hove instead offers 'Antigone' as a cautionary tale about the rule of law."
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"Thoughtful, measured and more than a little dull, this 'Antigone' is not so much melodrama as meh-drama...Despite its contemporary relevance, the play suffers here from the mannered, modernistic approach of the acclaimed Belgian director...It's not just the modern dress and the set, or the ever-trendy video projections. It's more that the staging moves at a glacial pace, with the actors too often reciting their lines in a soft-spoken monotone that quickly proves tedious."
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"Director Ivo von Hove works against its compelling and compact nature by slowing it down to an unbearable pace. Much of the dialogue is recited without emotion. The abstract design scheme, which contrasts a blazing sun and empty desert with a contemporary office and sofa, is intriguing but puzzling."
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"Director van Hove gives 'Antigone' a contemporary urgency by keeping one foot in Sophocles' ancient world and another planted squarely in the present...This production makes clear that 'Antigone' has as much to say to today's audiences as it did to Sophocles'...Together van Hove and Sophocles try to teach us a timeless lesson about the dangers of extremist thought and the need for compromise. It's a lesson that, millennia later, we have yet to learn."
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"It's unfortunate that van Hove wasn't able to point his leading lady in the right direction. But with its otherwise excellent cast and the director's sense of both the minimal and the grand, 'Antigone' is haunting. It's not exactly focused, but perhaps, like the projections, that's intentional. "
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"Unfortunately, van Hove’s ultra clean – and can I say 'older?' – production avoided any conflict or contemporary issues and catered to a safe middle ground...The play’s theme of religion over politics is a big question still. I would have liked to see van Hove, of all directors out there, take the opportunity of Antigone to challenge us a little more. Instead, he plays it safe all around, with star casting and big visuals."
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