To direct a production of Antigone, one has to consider the fundamentals of the playtext and the history of the plays productions. The context that the play was written in, the playwright himself and the major themes of the play and issues of characterization must all be considered before setting out on such a task, especially if the play in question happens to be two and a half thousand years old.

In the fifth century B.C. Sophocles wrote and produced Antigone, the first of a trilogy that would become the most famous works of that age. The first production of Antigone would have been staged as part of a competition for playwrights in front of up to fifteen thousand Greek citizens. At the Theatre of Dionysus as part of the City Dionysia Sophocles presented Antigone, a play that supports the divine laws over the human, staged around...