‘ANOTHER ANTIGONE’ TO MAKE DEBUT

SAN DIEGO —  “Another Antigone” is not so much another “Antigone,” the classic by Sophocles, as it is a play about values, misunderstandings, old versus young, male versus female, all against the backdrop of anti-Semitism.

It is also a world premiere, set for the Cassius Carter Centre Stage of San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre starting Saturday.

It combines the talents of playwright A.R. (Pete) Gurney Jr., 56, and director John (Joey) Tillinger, 47, who previously collaborated on “The Perfect Party,” “The Golden Age” and the current Broadway hit “Sweet Sue” (starring Mary Tyler Moore and Lynn Redgrave).

The Old Globe got the production largely through the insistence--and enthusiasm, Tillinger said--of Jack O’Brien, the theater’s artistic director. O’Brien’s first plan, Gurney said, was to stage “Another Antigone” in repertory with “Antigone,” even using a dual cast.

“Jack wanted to do something Greek, and then he wanted to do a modern play, too,” Gurney said. “Finally, it came down to a question of time--we couldn’t do both.”

Tillinger, who spends most of his time at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., is excited about the cast. George Grizzard plays a surly college professor who refuses to yield to a well-meaning but fiercely determined student (Marissa Chibas). Steven Flynn plays her boyfriend and Debra Mooney plays a college dean.

The student wants to do a contemporary treatment of the Greek classic, about a woman who defies an uncle’s edict. Her professor thinks the idea preposterous. He also thinks college students just aren’t as smart or disciplined as they once were. For his student to toy with Sophocles--to want to write “Another Antigone”--is, to his way of thinking, heresy.

The battle ends up not unlike that between Antigone and Creon, who forbade her to perform funeral rites for her brother Polynices.

Gurney is “nervous” about revealing too much of his play. Although never sitting down to write strictly a comedy or a tragedy, he was stunned by several “startlingly dark” turns.

“Of all my plays, this one steers closest to death,” he said. “The kind of death that occurs at the end--although no one’s heart stops beating--is, in fact, quite painful.”

As a 25-year faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology--he teaches classical literature--Gurney shares some of the feelings of the lead in “Another Antigone.” It isn’t hard to see, he mourns, a decline in standards, in the interests and passions of students. He believes education is for making a life, not making a living.

Unlike the unbending professor in his play, however, the playwright is taking some risks, forcing himself--and his audience--to consider a challenge.

Anti-Semitism “came up in the course of the writing,” said Gurney, who isn’t Jewish. “It seemed to follow naturally what was happening in the play. I realize it’s a dangerous topic. I hope people see it as (handled in a manner that is) sensitive and fair.”

Gurney has written three novels, which compared to plays “is like playing tennis without a net.” He loves the “communal” aspect of theater, the give-and-take between audience and stage, playwright and director. He likes Tillinger, he said, because he trusts his instincts (“Theater is in his blood,” Gurney says.) Tillinger has equally high praise for Gurney.

“He’s a very good writer,” he said. “He knows his characters well and has a feel for story. He has a musical ear. I don’t mean he has a musician’s ear; I mean he knows how the rhythm of each scene goes. It’s true of all great playwrights--Mamet, Coward, Ibsen, Shakespeare. Each has distinct rhythms.”

Both men prefer the distinct rhythm of smaller theater, especially for openings. Both talk of the jarring, unsettling sounds of modern-day Broadway. Gurney deplores the high prices of tickets and production, and the epics they seem required to spawn.

Tillinger’s idea of theater lies several alleys west of Shubert’s--as far west, it seems, as the Old Globe or the Mark Taper Forum.

“I love coming to a place like this (San Diego),” Tillinger said, “where every night the place is packed . In some cities where regional theater thrives, people drive through hell--rain, snow--just to see your play.”

Tillinger turned down an offer to direct in England at about the time he heard from O’Brien.

“The British offer was made so grudgingly, so unattractively,” said the man who spent much of his life in Britain but now vastly prefers the United States. “Jack was so welcoming, so supportive, so effusive, I just couldn’t turn him down. And, of course, I hardly mind leaving Connecticut this time of year. Who needs 10 above zero when you can have this ?”

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