‘Antigone’ Is a Starting Point for ‘The Other Place,’ But Don’t Expect Resolution

One of the most riveting plays to premiere on Broadway last year was “Oedipus,” a British-based adaptation of Sophocles’s tragedy set in the present. As that production closed just days ago, another British import based on another one of that author’s Theban Plays was preparing to open in New York, although this one takes more creative license — with far less satisfying results.“The Other Place,” which arrives at The Shed following a run at the National Theatre, uses “Antigone” more as a starting point than a template — which would be fine if its writer and director, Alexander Zeldin, had something fresh or compelling to say in expanding on the source material.Instead, we get psychosexual hoo-ha dressed up as a sleek thriller that’s intermittently cheeky but mostly humorless. The tragic heroine here, Annie, is a young woman who returns to her childhood home after a long period of what initially seems to be self-imposed exile, ostensibly to help scatter the ashes of her father, who died before her departure.The catch is that, just as Sophocles’s Antigone wanted to properly bury her late brother, Polynices — in defiance of her uncle, Creon, who had replaced their father, Oedipus, as ruler of Thebes — Annie wants her late father’s ashes to remain in their old home, which is now occupied by her own uncle, Chris, along with his wife and her child.Even before Annie turns up, we know something is off about her. “It’s a terrible idea that she’s coming,” says a friend and colleague of Chris, in the play’s tense opening moments. This character, Terry, will function to both provide comic relief and underline the toxic masculinity that struck me as Mr. Zeldin’s real target; Jerry Killick brings the right weaselly energy to the role.Annie is portrayed by Emma D’Arcy, an actor who identifies as non-binary — known to fans of “House of the Dragon,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel, for playing a princess with her own family baggage — and who, under Mr. Zeldin’s guidance, projects a sturdy intelligence that suggests Annie isn’t entirely the selfish, self-destructive basket case that Chris and Terry make her out to be.As Chris, Tobias Menzies, whose own high-profile TV credits include “Thrones” and “The Crown,” exudes a quiet menace that builds steadily. By the time the play’s final twist is revealed, putting all the cards neatly in place for Annie’s exoneration — and sealing her dark fate — Chris has emerged as even more despicable than his buddy; his callousness seems punctured only by a weird, lingering rivalry with his late brother, whose tortured spirit appears to endure in Annie.One living male in the play suggests something more than a malignant mass of testosterone, or so it seems at first: Leni, the sensitive child of Erica, Chris’s wife, is played endearingly by a young man, Lee Braithwaite; alas, the seemingly teenage character is addressed with they/them pronouns. Leni’s mom, Erica, is similarly compassionate, and the elegant Lorna Brown conveys both her dignity and her vulnerability.Ruby Stokes completes the cast capably as Annie’s devoted younger sister, Issy — a nod to Antigone’s sister, Ismene — who has been staying with Chris and his family; predictably, she gets no more empathy from her uncle than the other women in “The Other Place.”Original music by Yannis Phillippakis, frontman of the British band Foals, plays a key supporting role: Eerie strains murmur almost imperceptibly under the dialogue at times, then increase in volume and dissonance, thundering abrasively between scenes. It’s a fitting accompaniment for a play and a production that deliver fussy melodrama in lieu of catharsis, and trendy tropes instead of the more nuanced insights that have always driven the best drama.

‘Antigone’ Is a Starting Point for ‘The Other Place,’ But Don’t Expect Resolution

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