Antigone in the Spring
Inspired by the classic play by Sophocles, Antigone in Spring takes us to a fictional Québec where dead birds fall from the sky, covering highways, rooftops, and parks. The citizens demand an explanation, but the answer never comes; the government, led by the autocratic Creon, refuses to tell the truth. A revolution is brewing, however, and the population’s youth and their supporters, inflamed by the unprecedented ecological disaster, are calling for freedom. Amid this upheaval, Antigone and her brothers, Polynices and Eteocles, narrate their tale. Born into a happy family that flees to their cottage in Rivière-Éternité every summer, they lived in the certainty that the world was a safe place of warmth and honesty. But when they accidentally learn the truth – that their mother Jocasta is married to her own son, Oedipus, who is both their father and their brother – everything falls apart, and the three siblings are caught up in the revolution sweeping through the city.
Written in free verse and fuelled by the courage and integrity of the protesters during the student demonstrations that rocked the streets of Montréal in 2012, Antigone in Spring is an ode to all the revolutions whose stories remain untold.
Nathalie Boisvert’s fifteen plays include L’été des martiens, translated into both English and German and produced in Montréal, Toronto, Avignon, Brussels, Düsseldorf, and Berlin, and more recently Facelift, published by Éditions Somme toute. Her work has received three important awards: the 2006 Journées de Lyon des Auteurs de Théâtre for Vie et mort d’un village, the 2007 Prix Gratien-Gélinas for Buffet chinois, and the 2018 Prix Émile-Augier from the Académie française for Antigone au printemps, which was also a runner-up for the Governor General’s Award for Drama. She lives in Dundee, Québec, where she writes, paints, gives workshops in creative writing, and organizes residencies in writing. In addition, she teaches playwriting at the École nationale de théâtre du Canada.
