Antigone might be considered an unusual, or at least demanding, choice of play to stage: why did you choose it?

Funnily enough, I did Antigone in Year 7, studying it and putting together a few scenes badly. I just always remembered the storyline, and my drama teacher would always say: “Oh Myles, I still remember you in Antigone!” so I thought it would be funny if it were the first thing I directed at Cambridge. Also, I don’t have very much Classical knowledge, so I wanted to do Antigone as this kind of naturalistic drama, and bring out the tragedy and the relationships between the characters, not necessarily trying to keep in line with the Classical myth.

Why directing rather than acting?

I do really like acting, but I always said to myself that I really want to go into directing. For my EPQ I filmed Hamlet, which was a lot of fun, but extremely stressful. It took me a year to film and I missed the last deadline… The opportunity came along to apply for The Mighty Players’ freshers’ play, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to start directing, gain experience, and play around with a really enthusiastic cast and the chapel space.

How have you found it as a first-time director?

It has been very busy – more so than acting. From the outset in the Christmas holidays I had to plan my concept and meet up with my assistant director. I also had to speak to New York about getting the rights, which was quite funny, emailing them like “oh, hi, the University of Cambridge would like to put on your play, are the rights available?” They came back to me and said the rights were £200: that’s over half our budget, so I luckily managed to negotiate it down to £150. My producer phoned up and asked for the rights on my behalf, and they asked if she was from “Myles’s office’”[laughs] I wanted to get started as soon as possible, as it’s in week 4.

So, Antigone opens next week: how’s it shaping up?

I think it’s going really well at the moment. I think in Cambridge we’ve got quite a long time to get the nuance out of it and get the subtleties there. The thing with having a traverse stage is that the actors won’t be able to direct their attention towards the whole audience at once, so they have to be aimed at certain parts of it. I have to make sure there’s something going on all of the time, and there’s something for the audience to look at. The chorus are going to be onstage the whole time, which I hope will create an immersive environment for the audience.

Antigone is performed and directed entirely by freshers; do you think there are enough opportunities to get involved with Cambridge theatre as a fresher?

I think there are loads of opportunities. I don’t really know about other universities. I’ve heard from friends that there’s a reasonable amount of theatre, but at Cambridge you have at least four shows a week plus college plays. There’s always loads of opportunities and emails coming in with vacancies for actors, producers and technical crews. It’s very competitive, but it’s always fun to go to auditions and try something even if you’ve never done it before. It’s always great just to go along and see what happens.

How has the fact that it’s being performed in Selwyn Chapel impacted both your directing and Antigone as a play?

When I was applying to be director I thought that in order to get a really atmospheric piece of theatre, and a really engaging piece of theatre, it would be interesting to stage it in the chapel. A tragedy can work really well in a chapel because it lends itself to the idea of Jacobean indoor theatre. But rather than doing a Jacobean or Shakespearean piece, I thought: “why don’t we apply that method to a Greek tragedy?” The use of the chapel has definitely informed the concept: we’re doing it so that the setting itself is actually a chapel rather than just being a space to use. For example, Antigone is set after a war so the chorus and the characters are like refugees, which has a great modern resonance. We’re trying to hint at that, albeit not too strongly. The chapel is a safehouse, which the chorus – as refugees – enter, but tragedy still manages to infiltrate it. You wouldn’t expect war to enter somewhere construed as ‘safe’, and yet it does.

How do university and college drama compare in your mind?

The main difference is that the ADC is a huge theatre, so the chapel is very different to direct in. I think doing it in a college setting really shows off the skill of the actors, because sometimes I think there’s a stigma about college drama – about how maybe people do college drama because they can’t get into university drama. But I think they’re equally matched in terms of talent.

Do you have any future plans to act and direct in Cambridge, and beyond?

Yes: directing has been an amazing experience and something I would like to explore. My friend and I have just sent off an Edinburgh Fringe application, and I might do something last-minute for the ADC, as applications close tomorrow. Equally, I do love acting as well. I’m in West Side Story later in the term. As for the future...I don’t really know to be honest…that’s why I’m doing an English degree. [laughs]