“The Nurse Antigone”: Coping with Grief and Loss
On Thursday, March 17, I attended the performance of The Nurse Antigone by Margaret Atwood. The audience was informed that, prior to the start of the play, Eteocles and Polynices, brothers and sons of Oedipus, killed each other in battle over the control of Thebes. Creon, newfound leader of Thebes, declared Polynices a traitor and therefore did not give him burial rights. Their sister Antigone, the protagonist of the play, opens the play by urging her other sister Ismene to help her bury Polynices. Ismene is against the idea of defying Creon and inflicting more trauma and death in her family. However, Antigone persists and decides to bury Polynices on her own.
A guard found Antigone burying her brother and reports it to Creon. Creon then sentences Antigone to death through burying her alive. The audience then finds out that Antigone is betrothed to Creon’s son, Haemon. Haemon tries talking Creon out of his decision by informing him that the people of Thebes are very upset with his death sentence order. The people of Thebes think her cause was noble and urges Creon to reconsider her punishment. Creon disregards Haemon’s pleas and goes through with the execution. Antigone is then buried alive in a cave and hangs herself.
Tiresias, an old prophet, insinuates to Creon that his decision to kill Antigone will result in the sacrifice of his offspring. Creon accuses Tiresias of lying for the purpose of profiting off his sorrow. Soon after, Haemon kills himself next to Antigone’s hanging body. Creon is informed of this and then learns that his wife is also dead.
Upon reflection, I thought it was amazing the way Bryan Doerries, the director, was able to connect a play from ancient Greece to nurses suffering in the pandemic. The play was centered around loss, grief, and aggression. Nurses during this pandemic have faced so much trauma, loss, grief, and unwarranted aggression and violence. Throughout this pandemic, nurses have had to fill the void of real family members because patients on their deathbeds cannot even see their family in isolation. The reality that families cannot see their loved ones before death can be correlated to Antigone and Ismene, and their lack of closure when both of their brothers died.
On top of this,The dramatic conflict in Greek theater is shown in this play, where murders and betrayal are underlying themes. The omnipresence of violence and aggression in Roman and Greek culture was exhibited through their forms of entertainment. I also really enjoyed seeing Margaret Atwood debut her acting career as Tiresias. I have always loved Margaret Atwood. I especially love “The Handmaid’s Tale”, and it was amazing to watch her on live video.
