Aaliyah: Antigone the voice for British South Asian Muslim Communities

Abstract

As with most Greek tragedies, the appeal of these ancient texts is their ability to continually talk to our sense of humanity and ask ‘what would you do?’. They specifically lend themselves well as case studies to civic discussions; therefore, it is not surprising that during a number of key moments in British history, we see revivals of certain plays. Sophocles’ Antigone is such a production which has had a lengthy performance history in Britain, however, with the introduction of Anouilh’s (1949) and Brecht’s adaptations (1967) to the London theatre scene we see Antigone subsequently used as a vehicle for politically charged discussions surrounding current affairs, in particular anti-war messaging and criticism of government policy.
While Britain has been multicultural for a lot longer than some would like to accept, the demographic producing and creating adaptations of Greek tragedy were, and in many ways continue to be, predominantly white British, and rarely reflect the diversity within British society.
However, there are a number of playwrights and authors outside of this cohort who are utilising the plays and mythologies of the Greco-Roman world to vocalise their lived experiences within the UK. This is seen notably in adaptations of Sophocles’ Antigone since 2017.
This paper will focus on how the tragedy of Antigone has been utilised to discuss the moral dilemmas that multicultural Britain faces, particularly from the perspective of British-Pakistani and British-Bengali Muslims. It will explore how the success of Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire (2017) opened the door for new interpretations leading to the productions of Aaliyah (After Antigone) in 2021 and Inua Ellams’ Antigone in 2022. The core of this paper will discuss how these adaptations use the tragedy to explore the question of what it means to be a British Muslim today.