The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Mar. 4, 1946

Antigone (adapted from the French of Jean Anouilh by Lewis Galantiere; produced by Katharine Cornell in association with Gilbert Miller) was born of the Nazi occupation of Paris. Playwright Anouilh (pronounced Ahn-oo-ee) reworked the famed Antigone of Sophocles with a furtive and topical eye: Antigone's defiance of King Creon's edict that her brother Polynices' body must lie unburied might be a spur to French resistance. In writing the play, Anouilh was plainly walking on eggs. Not only must his Antigone hearten the French, but his Creon must not offend the Germans.

When Antigone...

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