English: The Story of Antigone. London: Pushkin Children’s Books, 2013.

Ali Smith’s The Story of Antigone follows the familiar plot of the play by Sophocles. Prior to the beginning of the play, Antigone’s brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, are leading the opposing sides in the Theban civil war. The two brothers kill each other at the same time and Creon declares that Eteocles was the rightful king of Thebes and will be honoured and that Polyneices is a rebel and will be denied holy rites of burial. After the death of her brother, Antigone goes against the wishes of her king and uncle, Creon, and prepares and buries her brother’s body. In punishment for her crime she is condemned to die. However, not wishing to take responsibility for her death, Creon sentences her to being closed up in a cave, meaning that her death will be by natural causes. However, Tiresias curses Creon for ignoring his warning and killing Antigone, leading to the death of Creon’s son and wife. Smith’s adaptation only differs significantly from Sophocles’ play through the addition of the Crow and the Dog. The Crow is the narrator of the story and the dog a companion of Tiresias. The addition of these two does not stray far from Sophocles however, for, as Smith notes in the epilogue, imagery of crows and dogs is evident throughout the play.

The classical components of The Story of Antigone are clear in its close adherence to the text of Sophocles. Smith’s active engagement with both critical discussion on the text and her interaction with mythology makes it both a good point of entry for adolescents interested in classical civilisations and literature as well as an engaging read for those less interested in Classics.

The story of a seemingly powerless girl standing up to a seemingly all powerful man will resonate with today’s younger generation, mirroring images of contemporary individuals such as Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist for female education who was shot in the head by the Taliban for attending school, or Ahed Tamimi, the young Palestinian activist who was imprisoned for eight months for slapping an Israeli soldier. One image is particularly striking in displaying a small girl versus the patriarchy: Creon speaks of taming horses with a bit. Such language connects with the trope common though history of ‘breaking’ women, training them to be submissive 

Smith engages with the Sophoclean play through the use of the Chorus. The Chorus in The Story of Antigone is made up of a group of old men who come across as out-dated, unfashionable and a little cowardly. This puts them in direct opposition to Antigone, who stands up for what she believes in; they cower under Creon, try to appease him and attempt to avoid his wrath at all turns. The cowardly Chorus offers a play on gender expectations, a trope picked up elsewhere in Smith’s adaptation through the strength of Antigone and the weakness of Creon. Smith also uses the chorus to update the concerns of Sophocles’ play, keeping the topic of many of the Chorus’ songs but changing the content to affect the overall sentiment of the songs. Smith uses the Chorus’ song about being unable to escape fate but rather than include the words of the Chorus, the Crow mentions the song and its content in a disparaging tone, inviting the rather modern suggestion that humans can be masters of their fates. For a reader familiar with ancient literature, this provides a clear opportunity to discuss or think about the nature of fate, and differing attitudes across time. This updating of attitudes visible in the play can also be seen in the way that Smith leaves out the Chorus’ proclamation that the burial was perhaps the will of the gods. Instead, the Chorus sing of all the things that man has conquered but they also sing that man cannot conquer the grave. 

Smith displays her interest in gender and sexuality through some of the subtler choices in her adaptation. Playing with notions of gender and sexuality is a trope in many of Smith’s works, including by presenting characters who consciously reject gender. In this work, Smith mentions that Tiresias has been both male and female. Though a fairly well known aspect of Tiresias, it is not mentioned in Sophocles’ play. The decision to include it creates a launch point for further investigation for readers who are interested in gender.