I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DEPECHE MODE-“Fly on the Windscreen” (1986).

Every time I use the phrase ‘death is everywhere” (which I don’t do often, but which I do do below) I think of this song.

I forgot how synthy this song sounds when it opens–two different very synthy sounds.  After the vocals (which feature Dave Gahan’s voice at its strongest) the guitars come in and the song sounds a bit more complex.

It’s funny how the song which starts with the dark verses and  “death is everywhere” can have the cool and rather sweet bridge of “Come here, touch me, kiss me, touch me, now.”  (Gahan’s o’s are so wide when he sings, it’s great).

This song really marks the transition of Depeche Mode from synth pop to darker more angsty music.  Indeed, all of Black Celebration, with its noisy percussions and unusual instrumentation and of course, Martin Gore’s dark lyrics, shows a band transitioning to new levels of greatness.

[READ: May 30, 2013] How to Think the Unthinkable

This play was created and produced for the Fringe Festival.  I tend to think of the Fringe Festival as, you know, stuff on the Fringe, so I imagined that this play that was “After Sophocle’s Antigone” would be a modern and possibly weird update of the story.  And it starts off that way with a guard coming back with three clothespins.  He explains that he always draws the short straw and he was the one sent off to get clothespins to block the noses of the other guards.  You see, they have been sitting watch over this body for a few days and he is starting to smell pretty bad.

But when the guard, Tom, arrives, he discovers that the other two guards (Roy and Bo) have fallen asleep and the body is gone.  Tom freaks out, he tells them (and us) that the body (of Polynices) cannot possibly be given a proper burial.  Polynices was a traitor to King Creon and his punishment is to be left to rot outside of the city walls.  How could they have let someone take and bury his body?  They were tired.  See, it’s funny.

Indeed, the other guards have no answer and are more or less comic relief.  Until Haemon shows up.  Haemon is Creon’s son.  He is super annoyed because he was the one who vouched for Tom and the others.  Now he looks bad and Creon will be pissed.

Cut to Creon ensuring the City Elder that he plays no favorites and if even his son is found guilty of a crime—like burying Polynices–well, the full force of punishment will come onto him as well.  Like any Greek tragedy, you can see the set up.

Okay, so far so good—it’s like Antigone, but kind of modern.  But then Antigone herself comes on stage.  She is to be married to Haemon.  She is also Polynices’ sister.  And it turns out that she is the one who buried him, believing that it was unjust to leave his body to rot.  Now Creon is in a bind.  Creon’s wife, Eurydice, suggests a way for everyone to save face.  Just put Antigone in a cave and tell everyone she will rot there.  In the meantime, let Polynices’ body rot away and when it is gone, allow Antigone to come out and Creon can announce that the punishment is served because the body is gone.  Sound like a plan.

Of course, it’s a Greek tragedy which means that the plan doesn’t quite work out and death is everywhere.

The problem with this play is that it doesn’t deviate from the original story at all.  So why not just call it Antigone?  The imprint of the publisher is Oberon Plays for Young People, so I assume this is meant to be a version of the play that younger kids will get (the original is a rather lengthy poem).  But I’m unclear why this is meant to be a “different” story.  The cover (and never judge by the cover, although I assumed it was a still from the play) shows a pretty young girl with an iPod lying amidst the debris of an urn.  But in the story there’s no trappings of modernity in the play anywhere, so I’m not really sure what to think.

As a simplified version of Antigone, this works great.  As an original work, I fear it is not terribly original.  I did enjoy the short straw jokes though.