That is the name of the play by Beth Piatote now playing in Los Angeles! This, from “People’s World”:
“LOS ANGELES — Theatergoers are in for a very special occasion—a revelation, it’s not too excessive to say—if they will expand their horizons a bit and embrace a Native American perspective on view now.
“Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary season, Native Voices presents the world premiere of Beth Piatote’s Antíkoni at the historic Southwest Campus of the Autry Museum of the American West, formerly known as the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, deemed the oldest museum in Los Angeles. According to DeLanna Studi, Native Voices Artistic Director, the work ‘developed during our 2020 Festival of New Plays,’ and it ‘perfectly embodies our spirit and mission.’
“Staged in a space that once housed thousands of Native ancestral remains and cultural materials, this timely retelling of Sophocles’ Greek classic, set within a museum full of Indigenous artifacts, centers a Nez Perce family caught between opposing pressures of the modern world and the ancient culture that Indigenous peoples commit to maintain.”
We know Beth from Fishtrap, where she was first a Writer in Residence in local schools, then and several times since a presenter at Summer Fishtrap. And we know her as part of a group of Nez Perce writers and speakers called “North Star” who have been at Tamkaliks and done readings at Fishtrap and at the Josephy Center.
And many of us know Beth from her book, The Beadworkers, a collection of poems, stories, and this play, Antikoni. The play is set in the near future, with the Nez Perce War of 1877, Native artifacts, and the question of how we deal with history, traditional truths, and decisions that must be made in the present day set against the backdrop of the classic Greek play, Antigone. Not really as backdrop, but as mirror reflecting dilemmas faced by Native Tribes and people today, and historians and museums intent on interpreting the past.
That’s an injustice. You will have to read the book and Antikoni, and/or if you find yourself in the Los Angeles area between now and November 24, see the play at the Autry. It’s an all-Native cast with Native direction in a venue that once housed thousands of Native artifacts. Or if you know someone… or at least read the book. There are other treasures in The Beadworkers.
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Photo from Fishtrap