“The Greek Tragedies have a remarkable way of showing
just how far we haven’t come in 4000 years;
this is both distressing and comforting.”
Director Yael Farber

Montreal, February 8, 2011 – The 2011 English graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) is proud to present kAdmΩs, Damned Be the Hands that Did this Thing, an adaptation by Yael Farber of The Theban Plays by Sophocles, also directed by Yael Farber. This public presentation will run at the Monument-National’s Ludger-Duvernay Theatre from February 22 to 26. This is the first NTS public performance directed by South African-born Farber since she was appointed head of the School’s Directing Program in May 2010.

About the Play

kAdmΩs is an original work, adapted by Yael Farber from Sophocles' Theban Plays. This new work seeks to examine leadership, accountability and the nature of democracy in a contemporary Super Power. Using primarily Antigone and Oedipus, The King, kAdmΩs tells the story of the daughter of Oedipus - who defies an edict by Kreon (the nation's sudden leader in a time of crisis) that her disgraced brother Polynices is to be denied all sacred burial rights. Discovering that the body of her brother has been tortured and likely murdered by Kreon's men, Antigone refuses to be silent about this attempted cover up and the consistently generated climate of fear that Kreon's power so heavily relies upon.

With the Theban Plays as a base to this work, the director also uses extracts from the writings of internationally renowned journalist Mark Danner to look at the use of torture and the breaking of a country's values and principles - in order to protect those very ideals. Using the concept of the mothers of missing and murdered children as the evocation of The Furies in this adaptation, the haunting testimonies of a single survivor from a massacre bears witness to the truth behind any one nation having the moral ground over another. kAdmΩs reaches to articulate a longing for a time when leadership was brought down by the scandal of its own stains, and gazes at leadership that survives today, not on history as truth, but as a narrative to be moulded towards its own means.

“The Theban Plays are an articulation of the inheritance of power, the ambitions of that power and the accountability to the city in wielding it. These plays speak powerfully to contemporary politics for me,” explains Yael Farber.

The actors, designers and the production team—all students—, are experiencing the challenges and rewards of creating a new work, as the adaptation takes shape and moves towards production. “These students inspire me with their courage, their talent, their discipline and their sheer joy in embracing what is not always comfortable, but true,” says Ms. Farber.

Note: Explicit Material

About the Director

Montreal-based Yael Farber is a multiple award-winning director and playwright of international acclaim. Her texts have all been published by Oberon Books (London, UK) and the productions have toured internationally, under her company The Farber Foundry, across the USA, the UK (including runs in the West End and at the Barbican Theatre), Canada, Australia, Japan, Europe and North Africa. She has earned a reputation for controversial and challenging work. Molora, her radical adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, was presented to critical acclaim at Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle, in January 2009; it will play this year in New York City. She will develop a commissioned adaptation of The Ramayana, which she will also direct,for The Culture Project (NYC) next year. Ms. Farber is presently Playwright-in-Residence for Nightwood Theatre (Toronto, Canada) creating an adaptation of The Bacchae. She will take up a short residency at the University of Maryland this year, to initiate her adaptation of a King Lear set in the Middle East.

The 2010-2011 season of public performances of the NTS graduating class is an excellent opportunity to catch future artists of the Canadian stage in action just before the beginning of their professional careers. Graduating actors, playwrights, directors, designers and production personnel work year round with professional guest directors to present a varied season that will hone the skills and talents of these new artists.