Antigone, The Barbican Centre

Juliette Binoche – incomparable star of Cache, Three Colours: Blue and Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf takes on one of the greatest roles in the history of drama. Freshly adapted by poet Anne Carson and directed by Flemish visionary Ivo van Hove for the Barbican London, this is definitely one of the hot tickets in London in 2015.

Antigone, summary

Sophokles is arguably Ancient Greece’s greatest dramatist, and Antigone is one of his masterpieces. Antigone's storyline follows the titular heroine as she seeks to bury the body of her wrongly disgraced brother, placing her private desires over political orthodoxy. This single act of resistance mounts into a devastating tragedy that minutely examines the nature of Greek society through issues of family, power and citizenship.

Anne Carson, Antigone

One of the reasons we at Culture Whisper are excited is because this play is penned by one of the finest English language poets working today. As a classicist, Anne Carson's writing style has constantly revisited Greek literature. Her verse novel Autobiography of Red (1993), a reshaping of Herculean legend set in contemporary society, managed the rare trick of pleasing both academic and popular audiences. 2012’s Antigonick was an eccentric, loose re-fashioning of Sophokles’ play into something new. With the Barbican’s Antigone, Anne Carson's new translation promises to retain Carson’s incisive verse while hewing closer to the original text.

Antigone, Barbican production

Ivo van Hove is an icon of avant-garde theatre worldwide. As leader of Amsterdam’s Toneelgroep, he has helmed revelatory stagings of Shakespeare, Ibsen and O’Neill. Ivo van Hove’s View From The Bridge at the Young Vic London attracted universal raves, praised for transforming Arthur Miller’s classic tale of American life into something elemental, visceral and contemporary. This will be his first take on a Greek play since 1993’s The Bacchae.

For three decades, Juliette Binoche movies have cut a distinctive path across European cinema. Not only do Binoche's awards include best actress at Cannes, Venice and Berlin but she has worked with an array of formidable film directors including Godard, Carax, Haneke and Kiarostami. No stranger to challenging roles, she declined lucrative casting invitations from Spielberg to star in Kieslowki’s Three Colours: Blue (1994). Her sporadic theatre appearances – including Mademoiselle Julie at the Barbican in 2008 – have received ecstatic notices. With additional greatness from Jan Verseweyeld's set design and An d'Huys costume creations, don't miss the singular chance to catch Juliette Binoche live in theatre in London. Check out Culture Whisper's inside look at the venue and our list of places to visit nearby for a cool night out in London.