Xtigone - World Premiere by Nambi E. Kelley

Closing African-American Shakespeare Company's 17th season is the World Premiere of XTIGONE, acclaimed Chicago-based actress and emerging playwright Nambi E. Kelley's urban adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy Antigone. XTIGONE is Kelley's impassioned response to the untimely deaths of youths in her native Chicago as a result of gang violence, which has risen sharply in the past several years. Distressed by similar recent events in San Francisco, Oakland, and other Bay Area communities, African-American Shakespeare Company, in partnership with California State University-East Bay, brings to the stage this profoundly moving and resonant reflection of our troubled times. Directed by CSU-East Bay professor Darryl Jones, this ancient drama for our contemporary moment is a stirring depiction of the immense human cost of violence in our cities.