If Greek tragedy and/or Native American folklore are your thing, Native Voices’ World Premiere production of Beth Piatote’s Antíkoni may be right up your alley. I, unfortunately, found my interest flagging and my mind drifting almost from the get-go.

Piatote bases her play on Sophocles’ Antigone, the tale of a young woman (the titular Antigone) whose decision to bury her fratricide-slain brother Polynices evokes the anger of the recently crowned King Creon, so much so that Tragedy Greek Style ensues.

It’s a play I’d probably pass on seeing as Sophocles first wrote it, my previous exposures to the genre created by such writers as Aeschylus, Euripides, and other assorted Greek tragedians having proven less than enthralling.

However, since this was Native Voices, whose mission to develop and produce new plays by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations playwrights is one I gladly support (I’d loved Dillon Chitto’s World Premiere comedy Bingo Hall back in 2018), I decided to take a chance on Antíkoni despite these misgivings.

Press materials described Piatote’s play as a “timely retelling of a Greek classic [in which] a Nez Perce family is caught between the pressures of the outside world—where a Nationalist Party threatens to silence their history—and adherence to the ancient ways of caring for the dead.”

“Set in the near future,” the press release goes on, “Antíkoni must defend eternal truths, Kreon rides the waves of changing politics, and a Chorus of Aunties delivers raucous and wise traditional stories to guide them.”

And as promised, this is indeed the story that unfolds inside the company’s Southwest Museum Campus, located in the hills surrounding Washington Park, when Antíkoni’s (Erin Xáalnook Trippncle) museum director uncle Kreon (Frank Henry Katasse) happens to come across some long-lost ancestral remains, a discovery which leads to (as the playbill puts it) “a heated family dispute over the fate of these ancestors.”

It’s a story that might have worked for this reviewer had playwright Piatote not chosen to have her characters speak in language that may honor the play’s Ancient Greek origins but came across dense and stilted to my modern ears.

And it didn’t help my interest level that a significant chunk of Antíkoni is devoted to folk tales recounted by a trio of Aunties played by Arigon Starr, GiGi Buddie, and Dawn Lura and featuring elements of magic realism that I recognize and respect as a significant part of Native American traditions but quickly had me tuning out.

Admittedly this is a highly personal take on a play and production that I could see was captivating many in the audience for whom it may have come across less esoteric than it did for me.

On the plus side, director Madeline Sayet and a highly committed cast completed by Kholan Studi (Haemon), Maddox Pennington (Guard), and Nikcoma Lee Mahkewa (Tairasias) do give it their all, Troy Hourie’s scenic design and Yee Eun Nam’s projection design are both highly imaginative, Pablo Santiago’s lighting dazzles as does Noel Nichols & UptownWorks’ sound design, and Asa Benally’s costumes and Jenine MacDonald’s props vividly evoke the Native American cultures they represent.

Before closing, I should warn readers that most of the seating (on three sides of the playing area) is non-traditional, meaning that you may have to plop down onto floor-level beach chairs or atop floor cushions or (in my case) sit for 100+ minutes on uncomfortable bleacher-style benches.

Jennifer Bobiwash is assistant director. Courtney Mohler is dramaturg and Nathan Woodworth is assistant dramaturg. Kimberly Sanchez Garrido is production stage manager. Edgar Bustillo is technical director. Jennifer Gonzalez. Sayda Trujillo is vocal coach. Ruby McGinn is scenic painter.

I’ll gladly return for more Native Voices productions in the months and years to come. That being said, their latest, Beth Piatote’s Antíkoni, just didn’t do it for me.

Note: Production stills, which customarily accompany my reviews, were not made available to the press.

Native Voices, Southwest Museum Campus, 234 Museum Dr., Los Angeles. Through November 24. Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00. Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00.
www.theautry.org/events/native-voices

–Steven Stanley
November 8, 2024

Tags: Beth Piatote, Los Angeles Theater Review, Native Voices At The Autry, Sophocles