'Too Much Memory' updates 'Antigone'

NEW YORK — This revolution will not be televised _ but only because there's no budget for video monitors, according to the Chorus in "Too Much Memory."

Written by Keith Reddin and Meg Gibson, and directed by Gibson, this often-wry, yet serious-minded production _ a project of New York Theatre Workshop's Jonathan Larson Lab _ uses quotes from modern texts to catapult the Greek myth of Antigone into the 21st century. Parallels are drawn to contemporary political conditions, complete with an autocratic leader who tries to redefine democracy, camouflage-clad soldiers who rough up their prisoners and try to drown them, and a populace increasingly disenchanted with all of it.

The genial Chorus (Martin Moran) first addresses the audience and sets the tone. "So it's the Greeks tonight," he says cheerfully, then introduces the actors and the characters. He describes the play as "an adaptation of an adaptation of a retranslation. We don't know exactly what to call that. A redaptation?"

The basic story is originally from Sophocles by way of French playwright Jean Anouilh in 1944. While Antigone was in exile from Thebes with her father, former king Oedipus, her two brothers killed one another over rights to the throne. Dictatorial Creon, now ruling Thebes, vindictively keeps the body of one brother rotting above ground, issuing an edict against burying him.

But Antigone insists on trying to bury her brother, claiming that religion and morality supersede the authority of the state. She seems to be rousing the people to revolution, so Creon has her buried alive in retribution, even though she's engaged to his son Haemon.

Gibson keeps this drama moving briskly. Outstanding ensemble acting highlights the clash of principles that propels Creon and Antigone, as well as the conflict between Antigone's love for her family and Haemon versus her determination to stand by her beliefs, even at pain of death.

Laura Heisler's Antigone is ably rendered, yet, clad in childlike clothing and rubber boots, she seems at times more stubborn than genuinely tragic. Peter Jay Fernandez crisply portrays Creon as an embattled politician trying to keep public order, even at the expense of his own family. Wendy vanden Heuvel gives a brief but memorable turn as Eurydice, Creon's traditionally silent wife, who bursts into a pent-up tirade against him for two decades of destroying her with coldness.

Ray Anthony Thomas is compelling as a loyal soldier, who claims he "just follows orders" because he has a family to feed. The tragedy ends with all-too-modern explosions and death, leaving behind indelible fragments of thought-provoking ideas.

"Too Much Memory" plays at the Fourth Street Theatre through Dec. 22.