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The Society for Classical Studies is delighted to begin its annual meeting in New Orleans with a very special performance: Antigonick, a version of Antigone by world-renowned poet/playwright Anne Carson (An Oresteia, Autobiography of Red, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho). The performance will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 8, 2015, and the public is welcome to attend at no charge.

Here are the opening lines:

Antigone: we begin in the dark
and birth is the death of us

Ismene: who said that

Antigone: Hegel

Ismene: sounds more like Beckett

Antigone: he was paraphrasing Hegel

Ismene: I don't think so

Antigone: whoever it was whoever we are, dear sister

Carson, assisted by her husband Robert Currie, will direct the reading. Professor Judith Butler will perform Kreon, and SCS thespians will play the other roles.

Bianca Stone illustration for Antigonick (New Directions, 2012)