Antigone Goes Modern: A Pregnant Protagonist Defies the State

In Anna Ziegler’s Antigone at the Public Theater, a present-day narrator named Dicey, who discovers she’s pregnant, shapes a two‑stream reading of Sophocles’s tragedy: on the outside a classic defiance of government, and on the inside a personal reckoning with bodily autonomy, culminating in an onstage abortion. Susannah Perkins delivers a fearless, boundary-pushing performance as Antigone, while Creon (Tony Shalhoub) confronts the limits of law and power. The play’s modern framing and intimate, urgent staging fuse ancient drama with contemporary debates, making the old tragedy feel startlingly current and relevant. Antigone (this play I read in high school) is on at the Public Theater through April 5.