Commissioned to mark the centenary of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2004, The Burial at Thebes is Seamus Heaney's new poetic translation of Sophocles' great tragedy, Antigone - whose titular heroine is one of the most intensely individualized and compelling figures in Western dramatic art. True to the time and place of the play, The Burial at Thebes represents the opposing voices as they impact the ancient clash between family and state in times of crisis, setting the morality of private devotion against that of public duty. Above all, The Burial at Thebes honors the overriding urgency and majesty of Antigone, in which language speaks truth to power, then and now.