Commissioned to mark the centenary of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2004, The Burial at Thebes is Seamus Heaney's new verse translation of Sophocles' great tragedy, Antigone - whose eponymous heroine is one of the most sharply individualized and compelling figures in western drama. The Burial at Thebes honours explores the dangers of pride and absolute belief regardless of personal, political and moral consequences. The opposed and irreconcilable voices of family and the state enact an ancient but perennial conflict, where the morality of private allegiance is pitched against that of public service.