Q&A: Writer and director Alexander Raptotasios on reimagining Greek tragedy Antigone

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Alexander Raptotasios, the director and writer behind Antigone [on Strike], a bold and thought-provoking reimagining of the classic Greek tragedy taking place at Park Theatre in London from late January 2025. Alexander’s adaptation delves into pressing contemporary issues, blending family drama with political intrigue and a call for audience engagement. As we explore Alexander’s inspirations, insights, and creative journey, we uncover how this unique performance challenges audiences to confront their own roles in shaping society.

Tell us a bit about your show Antigone [on strike]

This is a story about human rights and how governments can exploit public opinion to deny them. Family drama clashes with political struggles in a plot inspired by the ancient tragedy and real stories from East London. A desperate young woman is trying to bring her sister back from Syria. She was one of the many underage girls groomed to become brides at the Islamic State and is now stranded there with the British government cancelling her citizenship. After the legal route fails, she stages a hunger strike outside the Home Office and thus a media war starts between her and the Home Secretary who is using the whole situation to be the next Prime Minister. 

The key in this production is that audiences take part and vote in between scenes affecting the narrative, making this show also about how we as audiences have responsibility and choices in everything that happens around us. We are never just spectators. 

What do you think makes Sophocles’ Antigone still so relevant to today’s political struggles?

Antigone is essential a play about the clash of government rights against those of the individual within a democratic society. This is struggle that exists since the ancient times and is constantly under negotiation in any country today. Is public safety and social coherence more important than individual or even religious freedoms? This is a question of the original play and there is no easy answer, even today. It makes us question the extend the law should have in our lives and what is worth giving up for peace and comfort. Antigone is the symbol of the young female self-sacrificing activist. This young girl is powerless at first glance but eventually she is proven the strongest character in the play and perhaps in all ancient drama. She does. Not ask for. Permission, she breaks the law because she believes this is the right and moral thing to do. There is a line in the ancient text which has survived, if only adjusted, into this new play where Antigone says: 'Laws can be unjust, they are not eternal truths - we change them.'

What did you learn from working with students and teachers in East London, and how did it shape the play?

Working with the young students of the Oakland Secondary School in Bethnal Green was such a rewarding experience. They were so sharp and smart and fast to recognise the parallels between Antigone and the stories that had happened near them. They made apparent to us that no community is a monolith, there are endless interpretations and points of view within any group of people connected by religion or ethnicity or heritage - we can never assume. 

Also the students impressed us with their mad handle on social media - each student had multiple social media accounts on each platform expressing different part of their social identity. I felt a bit old to be honest. I can barely handle two accounts overall. But that means that kids today have unlimited, unregulated and multifaceted access to online communities and content in a way that we only begin to understand. This mad interconnectivity shaped the form of our play and set, introducing video-mapping in an attempt to simulate living within a social media feed and being bombarded with information and points of view that you may have no idea how to handle. How to disseminate. How to tell the truth from the line, from the ad, from the troll farm. It is scary.

What inspired you to include real-time voting in the play, and how does it affect the story?

The show is interactive, the audience is seated but can use keypads to vote on key questions of the play - the results are projected in real time and the characters take it into account as the story evolves. We want to give a real experience of having your voice heard and foster debate in real time within a play and a theater. Audiences need to understand their power and their responsibility. You are making choices and giving consent in every moment of your life. Online too. Why not in the theater - the most political artform of all?

After Antigone [on strike], are there other classic stories you’d like to reimagine to address modern issues?

All classic plays have something inherently timeless within them that always finds an expression in modern society. Aristophane's 'Birds' is about dissilusioned citizens abandoning the city to create their own social Utopia. Euripides' 'Bacchai' is about our animalistic, sexual and self-destructive self that we try to suppress with the invention of civilisation and civil society. Aeschylus' 'The Suppliants' is about how humanity was formed through refugee waves caused by male violence. The list is long and rich and I would love to develop any of the above. 

Can you sum up the show in three words? 

Control your narrative.

You can catch Antigone [on strike] at Park Theatre from 30 January - 22 February 2025. For more information and tickets head to https://parktheatre.co.uk/event/antigone-on-strike/