Susannah Perkins naked on stage in “Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)”

The play, “Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)” was written by Anna Ziegler. It opened at the Public Theater in February, 2026. In this contemporary feminist retelling of the Greek tragedy, Antigone has an abortion, in defiance of the law of her anti-choice uncle, King Creon.

Susannah Perkins played Antigone.

Video (not mine, of course).

The original version of Antigone was written by Sophocles about 2500 years ago, so the copyright has probably expired. That original story has nothing to do with abortion. It is as follows:

After a civil war, two brothers kill one another in battle. King Creon, uncle of both men, orders that Eteocles (who defended Creon’s rule) be buried, but Polyneices (who took up arms against it) be left unburied as a traitor. A prophet tells Creon that the gods are angry with his decision to deny burial rites to Polyneices, since they ordained those rites and they are, you know … gods. Creon ignores the prophet, which is never the smart play in ancient stories. In ancient Greece, that was the equivalent of betting on the Washington Generals to beat the Globetrotters.

By the way, that prophet is the local blind man. The Greek gods always hire the handicapped, perhaps as compensation for making them handicapped in the first place. Deaf and mute guys never get chosen as prophets because they either can’t hear or can’t transmit the divine instructions, so the blind guys get all the drachmas in the fast-paced, high-paying field of prophecy.

Creon’s niece, Antigone, sister of both slain warriors, and daughter of the previous king, believes that she must follow divine law to honor her brother with burial rites. Creon thinks that she must obey him instead since, as King, he is the law. Antigone does not give Creon a “like” on his ancient Greek Instagram page, buries Polyneices ritually, and is arrested. Creon sentences her to be walled up alive, causing her to hang herself.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Antigone was engaged to Creon’s son, her cousin.

The Greek gods were not real sticklers on incest unless it involved a parent and child, in which case, hoo-boy, did they send down curses upon the offenders. You’ve heard of King Oedipus, the “Oedipal complex” guy, the original motherfucker. In another play by Sophocles, Oedipus unknowingly gave his mom a ride on the ol’ love-log. When he figured it out, he blinded himself from the shame, and went into exile. The pension system in ancient Greece was remarkably poor, even for kings, and the gods were displeased with him over that whole mother-fucking thing, so they refused to hire the blind Oedipus as a prophet. He was therefore relegated to the second-most common profession for blind guys, begging.

Did I mention that Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus, who therefore had fucked her grandmother in another play?

Back to this play …

Creon’s son kills himself in grief at the loss of his beloved Antigone. Creon’s wife then kills herself in grief over the death of her beloved son.

Creon, left alone with his own grief, starts to wonder whether he may have overreacted a bit.

The ever-wise Greek Chorus ends the play by saying, “Ya think?”