The portable Antigone: Luis Rafael Sánchez’s drama The Passion of Antígona Pérez

Abstract

At the center of Sophocles’ Antigone is a struggle to reconcile personal beliefs with the needs or dictates of society. At no time is such a struggle more relevant than in periods of war, so it is not surprising that new adaptations of Antigone cluster around periods of armed conflict, whether between nations or within a single nation itself. In Luis Rafael Sánchez’s The Passion of Antígona Pérez (1968)—the subject of this essay—the nation or territory in question is one not typically featured in Western anthologies of drama: Puerto Rico, in the troubled possession of the United States.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• ancient Greek drama
• Antigone
• The Passion of Antígona Pérez
• Puerto Rican drama
• Luis Rafael Sánchez
• Sophocles

Note

Appendix: A production history of Antigone and its adaptations

The following production history concentrates on theatrical adaptations of Antigone, though there have been operatic as well as cinematic versions of the play as well.

Table

Notes

1 All translations from Luis Rafael Sánchez’s La pasión según Antígona Pérez (The Passion of Antígona Pérez) are by R. J. Cardullo.