With the rest of play already blocked, all that remained was the last section in which Antigone, Haemon and Eurydices die with the messenger''s monologue narrating it. At the beginning of this section, following that of the Guard and Antigone, we added a line for Creon's entrance of "It's time" to initiate the beginning of this section. An image we decided to create was a pile of rocks out of the Chorus bodies to create the "Cave of Hades". The idea of the messenger's monologue is for her to narrate it and the others to react as if they are there, therefore, Creon falling on the stones (bodies) and taking them away and there finding Antigone and Haemon. Chipp didn't want any overly dramatic acting on our parts, as it would look corny, but Creon should definitely look sad. I wasn't really sure how far to go with my face and actions, but wasn't told I was doing too much or too little so I guess it was okay?
My lines in this section I feel need to be extremely heart-felt, perhaps the most raw Creon has ever been, yet not overly dramatic as I feel Creon isn't so much sad by the deaths of his family but exhausted by what has happened and the emotional turmoil he has already experienced, and experiencing and overwhelming sense of isolation. Therefore, the lines couldn't dramatically delivered, but rather my last line of "it must be good to sleep" is quite short and soft, with a sense of Creon's exhaustion, on the point of tears.
An idea Chipp introduced was Creon becoming the Chorus at the end of the play with his lesson to be learned, this began with one of the Chorus lines which Creon said with her (once I got past stumbling/ mumbling the words I didn't know) then at the end, the Chorus gives Creon a script saying: "You're all alone now Creon" as everyone leaves him on stage (we cut out the last bit as we felt it was more effective ending in this way than the little conversation with the page and monologue from the Chorus) I loved the idea and think the image of Creon sitting reading with a light swinging over him will be very aesthetically pleasing and atmospheric.
The next section of the rehearsal was taken over with rehearsing the first chorus section which we hadn't done in a while, and fixing messy moments.One of the moments which we repaired is the transition from the battlefield to the pile of bodies as although most of us got to our positions in time, Melody couldn't get into position quick enough without it being too dangerous so we inserted a move which also got rid of our sticks, where we all slam our sticks on the wooden boarder at the same time then moving to position which gave Melody those extra few seconds. At the end of this section, normally myself and a few others would 'melt and slither' to represent Polynices' body being left to rot. However, not only would this be ridiculously muddy and gross, but also it meant we'd be distracting and off stage just before we went on stage again to shout abuse at Polynices and those who's buy him which looked awkward.
Following this we began a full run-through avec moi as Creon, missing out the massive section to save time. This was very useful as the scene I struggle most with is that of the Guard scene with Creon as for some reason, I can never seem to say the lines correctly or at least how I feel I should say them, most notably the "Right. Speak, what are you afraid of?" As I always manage to mess it up in some form or fashion such as leaving the gap too long or just saying it in the wrong tone altogether. Anyhow, the notes I received for this scene were much less critical than those I gave myself (I though I was going to be torn into for just not having enough energy or playing Creon too cold/ stand-offish in this section) but the only notes were: say "What do you mean alarm?" more urgently, trying to get to the point, and more explicitly appear to be thinking to myself with "Who dared..." as although I was going for this, I didn't change position or tone enough that it was extremely evident to the audience I was having a moment of reflection. Finally, with the bit with the page, which has always felt like an awkward add on, where before I turned immediately to the page and spoke directly to him, now I turned and spoke out, only turning for "Would you die for me?" adding a head tilt for the more personal touch. I much prefer this idea as before it was awkward and felt completely out of place, whereas now it seems more believable that a King would talk this way to his page boy.
In the bit with the guards and Antigone I struggled with lines, continually going blank but somehow managed to save it as no-one seemed to notice, they just thought I had a lot of intimidating dramatic pauses, whoop! I have no idea why these lines weren't coming to me as I knew them back to front beforehand, but I guess these things happen.
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