The Other Place: an 'excruciatingly funny' and 'shockingly frank' take on Antigone
Alexander Zeldin's retelling of the Greek tragedy is 'sucker-punch theatre'

"There's a lot of Greek suffering hovering over London at the moment," said Sarah Crompton on What's on Stage. Robert Icke's new version of "Oedipus", starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, is about to open, and an "Elektra", with Brie Larson, is due in January. But both of them "will have to be exceptional to match the sheer cathartic power" of "The Other Place", a "very loose" retelling of "Antigone" that manages to be naturalistic yet also uncanny.
Writer-director Alexander Zeldin strips away the complexities of Sophocles's plot to illuminate brilliantly why a 2,500-year-old play – about a young woman who defies her uncle, with tragic consequences – still has "universal resonance".
The action unfurls not in ancient Thebes, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times, but in a modern-day suburban home, where King Creon is Chris, his niece Antigone is Annie, and her sister Ismene is Issy. Here, Antigone has no slain brother. Instead, we join the story some years after the suicide of the girls' father – and amid a family feud about the fate of his ashes. This is "Antigone" as "modern psychodrama, digging deep into the fears, desires and taboos that surge through it. The result is both surprisingly funny and shockingly frank." Emma D'Arcy as Annie and Tobias Menzies as Chris turn in "blazing" performances as two people struggling "with a grief they can't control and a past that haunts them".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But all the cast excel, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian, in a riveting evening that generates audible gasps of shock from the audience. The "drama is huge", though the play is lean, at 80 minutes.
I'd say it's too lean, said Fiona Mountford on the i news site. In Greek tragedy, the endings bring the "purity and clarity" of catharsis. Here, too much is left unexplained. Zeldin does rather duck Sophocles's larger questions, to focus on the "foetid" relationship between Chris and Annie, said Claire Allfree in The Daily Telegraph. Still, on its own terms, "this is sucker-punch theatre, beautifully detailed and at times excruciatingly funny".
Lyttelton, National Theatre, London SE1. Until 9 November
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Trump tariffs: five scenarios for the world's economy
The Explainer A US recession? A trade war with China? How 'Liberation Day' could realign the globe
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Warfare: an 'honest' account of brutal engagement in Iraq
The Week Recommends Alex Garland's film focuses on the 'overwhelming, sensory journey' of conflict
By The Week UK Published
-
Is This Working?: a 'strangely gripping' look at British working life
The Week Recommends Author Charlie Colenutt weaves an 'utterly fascinating and thoroughly depressing' history of jobs
By The Week UK Published
-
Warfare: an 'honest' account of brutal engagement in Iraq
The Week Recommends Alex Garland's film focuses on the 'overwhelming, sensory journey' of conflict
By The Week UK Published
-
Is This Working?: a 'strangely gripping' look at British working life
The Week Recommends Author Charlie Colenutt weaves an 'utterly fascinating and thoroughly depressing' history of jobs
By The Week UK Published
-
Critics’ choice: Restaurants worthy of their buzz
feature A fun bistro, a reservation worth the wait, and a modern twist on Mexican dishes
By The Week US Published
-
Film reviews: Snow White, Death of a Unicorn, and The Alto Knights
Feature A makeover for Disney’s first animated feature, greedy humans earn nature’s wrath, and a feud between crime bosses rattles the mob
By The Week US Published
-
Art review: Jack Whitten: The Messenger
Feature Museum of Modern Art, New York City, through Aug. 2
By The Week US Published
-
Max Allan Collins’ 6 favorite books that feature private detectives
Feature The mystery writer recommends works by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Book reviews: ‘Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America’ and ‘How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978–1998’
Feature A political ‘witch hunt’ and Helen Garner’s journal entries
By The Week US Published
-
Scottish hospitality shines at these 7 hotels
The Week Recommends Sleep well at these lovely inns across Scotland
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published