Antikoni

by Beth Piatote

Genres: Plays

66 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

Beth Piatote is a Ni:mi:pu: (Nez Perce) scholar and author. She is a member of Chief Joseph’s Tribe and the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Reviews

[Luba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich hab das Stück zwei Mal für die Uni lesen müssen und es bleibt nach wie vor eine meiner absoluten Lieblingsadaption des Antigone Stücks (die andere Neuerzählung ist Home fire)
Jede Entscheidung war so clever und so gut gemacht und auch so passend für den Themenwechsel, der im Vergleich zum Original stattfindet! Kreon als Museumsleiter, die Trommel als Figur, die Sprechanteile der Figuren, die unübersetzten Anreden, der Chor der Tanten und deren Geschichten; sind einfach solche banger Ideen!!

[Lou Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best play I've read in years, I desperately wish I could see it!! This has so many important things to say about NAGPRA. NAGPRA works to return the remains of Native ancestors and their belongings to their communities with proper respect to traditions and religion; however, the process of repatriation often runs into roadblocks like identification, proof of identity/ownership, and resistance from those holding the remains. Each character in the play represents a different viewpoint and works as mouth pieces for their ideas in a really complex way, that shows how one family can reflect on the same idea.

Antikoni feels the betrayal of keeping her ancestors in the museum and that in leaving them there she is complicit in this betrayal. Her only solution to this is to break them out to try and give them a proper burial. She also feels betrayed by her sister Ismene. Ismene is afraid of consequences for other tribes going through the avenues of NAGPRA and afraid of the consequences Antikoni will face, while Antikoni feels a righteous anger. She feels betrayed by Ismene's silence. She feels stuck within the laws that Ismene wants her to work within which are an imposition from colonization and this compounds upon the loss already being grieved for the brothers. In the end Antikoni's decision makes sense, she cannot stand by and do nothing, but her only other option did not work.

For Kreon the museum is something else entirely. He views the museum as his domain to gain control back from the state, where he is viewed as passive, but where he is still in charge. He looks at those who would take this power from him as separate from his goals and immediately removes them as far away from himself as possible. Not only are they breaking the laws he's fought for, but they are no longer his kin. Antikoni focuses on the contrasting ways Kreon represents Ataoklas who he proclaims is brave and worth talking about, but whose remains are trapped beneath the museum without any remembrance or path forward for mourning. She views his actions as only serving himself and his pride instead of their memory, which would be better served by releasing their remains to their descendants to be honored in a traditional way.

These arguments in conversation with each other reveal the different ways the same family can look at the same situation and come to such drastically different solutions. The ways they're navigating the system in place or choosing not to. Kreon, Ismene, and Antikoni are all looking at and feeling the same loss, yet they're all going about life in such different ways that they seem so disconnected from each other. In fact, Kreon tries to establish that disconnect and even Antikoni does, telling Ismene to "denounce" her "in public as" she does "in private" during their arguments.

There is also a lot to be said about the themes of incarceration in this. Native bodies are disproportionately represented in the prison system and in a similar way in museums. By denying people their rights in death, the state and science are able to continually desecrate Native bodies. Through the denial of time immemorial, through the denial of cultural rites, through the groups outright ignoring NAGPRA, the incarceration of many Native bodies continues after death. In the play, the ways people are denied their religious rights and cultural practices in death are mirrored by how their descendants are continually denied ways to cope with the loss of their bodies and denied an outlet for grief.

I wish more people would read/watch this play, it has so many beautiful and complex messages to give to people. I have so many more thoughts than I can write down and I love it so much. I did not even touch the stories from the Chorus of Aunties which are all so varied and fun to try and search for meaning in. Please look into trying to read/watch this. It is so worth it!!

"We were born into this suffering. that our own blood would be divided from us, that our mourning could never come to an end, for it can never properly begin [...] What is denied the dead is denied the living ten times again. We remain the captives with them" 2 Antikoni

"It is better to die a noble death than to live as a captive, Though you bear your chains lightly. I would rather die with honor for those whose honor I defend. I will commit this sacred crime, for I am true To the Order of the world, the eternal laws, set in motion Long before this time now, this time that will someday end" 5 Antikoni

"You move me across, From the arms of my family to the chains of the State. You twist my tongue to unlock your laws. I do pity you, Uncle, for you have long ago admitted yourself To this prison, a darkness of another name" 19 Antikoni

"Perhaps Your ambition has made you blind, more blind than I, who see That the museum is a Cannibal: consuming the living, piling up the dead" 28 Tirasias

[sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Octavia]

My fav Antigone so far sides the OG

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️