For some reason, stuff at The Old Vic rarely works for us and this production of Antigone was no exception. It had been bigged-up in the media on the back of a big name cast, headed up by Tara Fitzgerald alongside Jonathan Hyde, Anna Calder-Marshall, Zubin Varla and several others, under the skilled direction of (and adaption by) Declan Donnellan.
Here is the Theatricalia entry for that production.
Janie and I didn’t think that Tara Fitzgerald suited that part, or indeed possibly the stage, but what do we know?
Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard gave it a blob:
Antigone Standard Old Vic 12 Oct 1999, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
On the other hand, Paul Taylor in The Independent liked it a lot:
Antigone Taylor Independent 12 Oct 1999, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Our friend, Michael Billington, in the Guardian, absolutely loved it:
Antigone Billington Guardian 1 of 2 14 Oct 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Antigone Billington Guardian 2 of 2 14 Oct 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
More often than not, if the critics are divided, we side with Billington (Guardian) over Spencer (Telegraph), but Charles Spencer panned this production (perhaps more vociferously than our view). I’ll let him have the last word:
Antigone Spencer Telegraph 13 Oct 1999, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com