A new version of Sophocles’ tragedy draws on the political turbulence in the home countries of its choreographer and performer ‘I didn’t recognise my own democracy. The Spanish state was repressing a civic initiative. Regardless of what I think about Catalan independence, it was a real shock.” Joan Clevillé recalls the banned Catalonia independence referendum of 2017 and its ensuing violence as a “traumatic experience”. The choreographer, who comes from Barcelona and is now artistic director of Scottish Dance Theatre, decided that Greek myth would provide a powerful lens through which to view these events and other ideas of resistance and disobedience. His new work – Antigone, Interrupted – is a solo, made with and performed by Clevillé’s long-term collaborator Solène Weinachter. In looking at Sophocles’ directly political tragedy, with its characters driven to inescapable fates from the conflict between civic duty and family loyalty, Clevillé and Weinachter ask: what is that driving force today, and is it possible to regain control in our uncertain world? Continue reading...