One serious play

By Meredith Deliso

It’s no toga party when the Xoregos Performing Company does a free performance of Sophocles’s tragedy “Antigone” this month at Mount Prospect Park.

The July 31 show, at the park near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, marks the company’s first Brooklyn stop for its annual summer show, which travels to various parks and libraries.

And this is a serious play: In the Theban civil war, two brothers who died leading opposite sides of the battle for the thrown. The new king, Creon, decides to honor one, Eteocles, while refusing to honor the other, the rebel Polyneices.

The injustice drives their sister, Antigone, to defy the king, and bury Polyneices herself — even though punishment means being buried alive.

Written more than 1,500 years ago, the play has remained relevant thanks to one central question.

“The whole idea is do you follow your conscious, or do you follow man-made laws that you know are wrong?” said director Shela Xoregos. “The audience has to make up their minds.”

“Antigone” at Mount Prospect Park [enter on Eastern Parkway next to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Prospect Heights, (212) 239-8405], July 31 at 6:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.xoregos.com.