Andy’s Gone

It is always a challenge to revisit a classic work and reinvent it in a different way. Verdier presents the audience with a modern interpretation of Antigone, pulling references from many contemporary sources – walls that divide world countries, online connections, popular swear words, video gaming, immigration, and today’s weaponry. Even the addition of the audience wearing headsets evokes the present day.

Verdier places many of these modern elements within the binary confines of two distinct and opposing viewpoints by embodying them within two female characters – the older, adult queen mother (Regina), and the younger, teenage princess (Alison).

In this play, Regina, the reigning Queen, endeavors to keep ‘undesirables” out of the walled city of the palace in order to protect the kingdom and all that has traditionally been upheld and valued for many years. Alison, the young princess, who will eventually rule this kingdom, wants to change the traditional laws, tear down the walls, and be a united country, caring for all people, of all classes, equally. The traditional Queen and the idealistic Princess challenge one another not only through their clash of beliefs but over the death of Prince Henry, the Queen’s only son.

The first three parts of this play may leave the audience wondering where the story is headed, but Verdier may be creating this chaos on purpose, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of both the queen and the princess with few details. The audience sees the youth and inexperience of the princess through her emotional outbursts while they are also privy to the upholding of traditional laws by the queen who only knows how to continue with the old ways, and “build the walls higher and stronger”.

Yet, in the last sections of the play (Sections 4-6), Verdier has the two characters of Regina (Queen), and Alison (Princess), speak long, lofty monologues that cement their opposing viewpoints, with no room for misinterpretation, not unlike a political debate broadcast for the intended viewing of all eligible voters, forcing them to listen closely, and choose a side.

The risk in producing opposing female archetypes is that the audience may need more intimate details of the characters’ lives to move beyond a surface level engagement. Why does the Queen hide the truth of her son’s death? Why does the Princess seem to condone violence? What will change bring? How does the audience identify with the Queen and the Princess’ understanding of socio-political issues? How does the audience become invested in the outcome? How do they begin to question their own set of values within the context of the values being explored during the play?

ALISON:

They aren’t criminals, or foxes. They’re people. Children. Families.

REGINA:

Are you ready to die for people you don’t know?

Andy’s Gone is intended for high school audiences. Since the play does a good job of presenting the two distinct viewpoints encased in the characters of an aging queen and a young princess, it does set the stage (so to speak) for a classroom discussion on how such opposing forces might be brought together to form a new approach to the running of a country.

Educators presenting Andy’s Gone with high school students might do well to introduce the original Greek tragedy, Antigone, along with it, exploring the similarities, differences, and dilemmas that exist within that original text, perhaps finding the gender binary, a popular topic for discussion. It might even cast further light on the socio-political climate of the students’ own country.