Antigone is a play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 by Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...

, written in Paris in 1922.

It is based entirely on a theme already treated by the mythological playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 Greek Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

 the Vth century BC. and frequently repeated since. Modern but more traditional than those that proposed Jean Anouilh

Jean Anouilh

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...

 in 1944, the Antigone of Cocteau emphasizes the author's fondness for mythological subjects (in 1934 appeared The Infernal Machine

The Infernal Machine

The Infernal Machine is a play by the French dramatist Jean Cocteau, based on the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus. It received its première in 1934 under the direction of Louis Jouvet.-Sources:...

). The tragic spirit given to Sophocles' play is also found there, along with all the characters as described in all their insidious evil.

Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...

 played the role of Tiresias

Tiresias

In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...

, and the piece is dedicated to Genica Athanasiou, which was assigned the leading role.

Adaptations to television

• 1967 : Antigone (by Jean Cocteau, after Sophocles), TV movie by Jean-Claude de Nesle