[Mats Backer]
In a new adaptation of Sophocles’ “Antigone,” opening Friday at the ancient theater of Epidaurus, the Norwegian director and choreographer Alan Lucien Oyen reimagines the tragedy through bodies, movement and collective presence rather than speech alone.
Performed by the Winter Guests ensemble alongside celebrated dancers from Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal, the production unfolds in a nearly empty space marked by seven wooden walls, evoking the gates of Thebes.
For Nazareth Panadero, a longtime Bausch performer, the work’s antiwar themes remain strikingly contemporary. She describes Epidaurus as a place of healing and argues that theater and dance can reach audiences directly, allowing words, actions and movement to coexist equally.
The French dancer Pascal Marty (pictured), who has worked with Oyen for more than a decade, said the performers do not embody fixed characters. Instead, they focus on actions and present-day resonances, including enduring violence against women. Epidaurus, he said, demands greater endurance, humility and truth for everyone involved there.
