Summary

Stage directions describe how “the two men convert their cell-area into a stage for the prison concert” (223), with Winston disappearing behind a curtain made by their blankets. John speaks to the audience, “not yet in his Creon costume” (223).

John addresses Prinsloo, Hodoshe, the guards, and other inmates. He sums up the background of the play Antigone, describing how in the story, two princes fought on opposing sides of the same war, and how both princes died, but only the one who fought on the side of the state was given a royal burial. The other, who fought on the side of the people, was not. He then describes how Antigone, the sister of both princes, “defied the law” (223), and gave the brother who fought with the people the royal burial he had been denied. She was then arrested, and is about to...