# Greek Tragedy Scenes for Two Actors: Antigone and Creon, Electra and Chrysothemis, and More

> Seven two-person scenes from Sophocles in Francis Storr’s free translation: where each one starts and ends, what each side argues, about how long it runs, where the one-line exchanges speed up, and how to drill them with a partner or alone.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/greek-tragedy-scenes-for-two-actors
- Published: 2026-11-14
- Last updated: 2026-11-14

Your teacher wants a classical scene that isn't Shakespeare, or your festival duet needs more weight than a comedy can carry. Greek tragedy is the obvious answer. Then you search for "Greek tragedy scenes for two actors" and get study guides, plot summaries, and essays about fate, with no idea where a scene starts, how long it runs, or which translation you're allowed to photocopy.

Here's the good news. Sophocles wrote some of the best two-handers in the whole repertoire: two people, one argument, nobody leaves until someone breaks. They are built for exactly what a scene class wants to see.

The short version: below are seven two-person scenes from *Antigone*, *Electra*, *Oedipus the King*, and *Philoctetes*, all in Francis Storr's public-domain translation, each with its first and last line, the case each side makes, about how long it runs, and a shorter cut. For single speeches, see our [Greek tragedy monologues](https://www.offbook.com/blog/greek-tragedy-monologues).

## Use one free translation, and count the minutes

Every English Sophocles is a translation, and a translation has its own copyright. Francis Storr's verse translations of the Oedipus plays and *Antigone* were first published in the Loeb Library in 1912, according to the [Project Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31/pg31.txt), and Cornell University Library's [copyright chart](https://guides.library.cornell.edu/copyright/publicdomain) lists works published before 1931 as public domain in the United States. Our play pages for [*Antigone*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/antigone), [*Electra*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/electra), [*Oedipus Rex*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/oedipus-rex), and [*Philoctetes*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/philoctetes) use Storr's text from Standard Ebooks, and every line quoted here comes from that edition.

Modern translations are still protected. Anne Carson's *Antigonick*, which the [Harvard Review](https://www.harvardreview.org/?p=13846) calls "Less translation than reinvention," came out from New Directions in 2012. If your teacher wants a modern version, buy or borrow the book, and don't work from a PDF someone posted. Whichever you choose, you and your partner should hold the same edition, or your cues won't match.

About the times. We counted the spoken words in each scene, chorus lines and stage directions out, and divided by 140 words a minute. Verse said with weight often runs slower, so time your own run before you commit to a slot. If you're entering a festival, the International Thespian Excellence Awards [acting rules](https://thespys.secure-platform.com/a/page/acting) define a duet as a performance for two players, require a scene from a published work written for the theater, and say it must not exceed five minutes. Several scenes below need a cut to fit, and each one gives you a shorter cut.

## Learn the one-line volleys first

Nearly every scene here contains a stretch of **stichomythia**: the speakers trade single lines, fast, often throwing the other person's words back at them. The [Wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichomythia) defines it as sequences of single alternating lines, or half-lines, given to alternating characters, and notes that it usually carries repetition and antithesis.

For actors, those volleys are the hard part and the fun part. Each line is a parry and a thrust in ten syllables, and each depends on the exact word your partner just said. Learn them as pairs (their line, then yours), never as a list of your own lines, or you'll be late on every cue. When you go up, it's often in the volleys, not in the long speeches.

## Antigone: two sisters, then a niece and a king

*Antigone* gives you two of the best-known Greek scenes for two actors. Her brother Polyneices died attacking Thebes, and King Creon has ordered that his body stay unburied. Antigone means to bury him anyway.

### Antigone and Ismene: the prologue — two women

The play opens on the two sisters alone before dawn. It starts on Antigone's *Ismene, sister of my blood and heart,* and ends on Ismene's *Yet to thy lovers thou art dear as ever.* as they part. Antigone wants a partner in the burial; Ismene argues that two women cannot defy the state and that she has no choice but to obey. It runs about five and a half minutes, Antigone has the larger share, and Ismene's long speech about their family's ruin is the turn. For a shorter version, start on Antigone's *Say, wilt thou aid me and abet? Decide.*: a little over three minutes.

Play it as two people who love each other and cannot agree, not a heroine and a coward. If Ismene is weak, the scene is over in a line.

### Antigone and Creon: the confrontation — a woman and a man

A guard has dragged Antigone in. It starts on Creon's *Speak, girl, with head bent low and downcast eyes,* and ends on his *No woman shall be the master while I live.* In between come her great speech on the unwritten laws, his reply about stubborn wills breaking, and then the volley:

> **CREON:** Hast thou no shame to differ from all these?
>
> **ANTIGONE:** To reverence kith and kin can bring no shame.
>
> **CREON:** Was his dead foeman not thy kinsman too?
>
> **ANTIGONE:** One mother bare them and the self-same sire.
>
> **CREON:** Why cast a slur on one by honouring one?
>
> **ANTIGONE:** The dead man will not bear thee out in this.
>
> *Source: Sophocles, Antigone, translated by Francis Storr ([Standard Ebooks](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sophocles/antigone/francis-storr/text/single-page)).*

Creon wants her to admit the state comes first; Antigone wants him to admit the gods' law outranks his. The parts are close to even, about 300 to 330 words each, and the scene runs about four and a half minutes at a brisk pace once you cut the Chorus's two lines and Creon's dismissal of the guard, so time your own run before a five-minute festival slot. Notice how she takes his word "shame" and turns it on him; that's the volley working.

## Electra and Chrysothemis: the plan to kill — two women

In Sophocles' *Electra*, two sisters live in the house of the mother who killed their father. Electra mourns out loud and is treated like a servant for it; Chrysothemis keeps her head down. They have two scenes together, and the second is the one to take into class.

It starts on Chrysothemis's *Joy, dearest sister, sped me hitherward,*: she has found milk, garlands, and a fresh lock of hair on their father's tomb and is sure their brother Orestes is home. Electra, who has just heard he is dead, crushes her hope and then asks her to help kill their stepfather Aegisthus themselves. Chrysothemis refuses, and the scene ends with her parting warning, *Sore stricken, thou wilt take my words to heart.*

The whole scene runs about ten minutes, with the parts close to even. For a six-minute version, start on Electra's *Then listen how I am resolved to act.* For festival length, start at her *’Tis as I thought* and play only the final volley, about two and a half minutes:

> **ELECTRA:** Begone! in thee there is no power to aid.
>
> **CHRYSOTHEMIS:** Not so; in thee there is no will to learn.
>
> **ELECTRA:** Go to thy mother; tell it all to her.
>
> **CHRYSOTHEMIS:** My hatred of thee does not reach so far.
>
> **ELECTRA:** Thou wouldst dishonour me; that much is sure.
>
> **CHRYSOTHEMIS:** Dishonour? No, I seek to save thine honour.
>
> *Source: Sophocles, Electra, translated by Francis Storr ([Standard Ebooks](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sophocles/electra/francis-storr/text/single-page)).*

The trap here is playing Chrysothemis as a doormat. She is the only sane person in the house, and every line is an attempt to save her sister's life. Give her that, and Electra has something to break against.

## Oedipus the King: the prophet, and the wife

Oedipus has sworn to find the killer of the old king Laius. The two scenes below are the play's first two blows: a prophet tells him the truth, and his wife tries to talk him out of believing it.

### Oedipus and Teiresias — two men, or anyone as the seer

Oedipus summons the blind prophet Teiresias for help. It starts on his *Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,* and ends on the seer's parting speech, *I go, but first will tell thee why I came.* Teiresias refuses to speak, Oedipus insults him until he does, and then it comes out:

> **TEIRESIAS:** Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.
>
> **OEDIPUS:** Who was thy teacher? not methinks thy art.
>
> **TEIRESIAS:** Thou, goading me against my will to speak.
>
> **OEDIPUS:** What speech? repeat it and resolve my doubt.
>
> **TEIRESIAS:** Didst miss my sense wouldst thou goad me on?
>
> **OEDIPUS:** I but half caught thy meaning; say it again.
>
> **TEIRESIAS:** I say thou art the murderer of the man / Whose murderer thou pursuest.
>
> *Source: Sophocles, Oedipus the King, translated by Francis Storr ([Standard Ebooks](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sophocles/oedipus-rex/francis-storr/text/single-page)).*

The full scene runs about ten minutes, split almost evenly. The fastest stretch, from Teiresias's *Is it so? Then I charge thee to abide* to his *Not Creon, thou thyself art thine own bane.*, is about two minutes and makes a tight class exercise. Oedipus wants a name; Teiresias wants to go home without saying it. Each gets what he asked for, and neither can live with it.

### Oedipus and Jocasta: the crossroads — a man and a woman

Jocasta comes to calm her husband after his fight with Creon. It starts on her *Let me too, I adjure thee, know, O king,* and ends on *That will I straightway. Come, let us within.* She tells him oracles are worthless, mentions in passing that Laius was killed where three roads meet, and watches him go white. Then come quick questions about the place, the time, and the old king's height, and Oedipus's long account of the man he killed at a crossroads.

Director Carey Perloff, describing rehearsals of *Oedipus* for [Digital Theatre+](https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/blog/rehearsing-greek-tragedy-with-carey-perloff), says her team first worked to "sort out the arguments, the discoveries, the basic 'givens'" of the first Jocasta-Oedipus scene. That's a good first pass for any scene here: write down what each person argues and the line where each learns something new.

The whole scene runs about ten minutes, and his crossroads speech alone is 540 words, so Oedipus carries the weight. For a shorter, even version, play from his *What memories, what wild tumult of the soul* to his *Lady, I fear my tongue has overrun* / *Discretion; therefore I would question him.*: under three minutes of question and answer.

## Philoctetes: the lie, and the confession — two men

If you need a scene for two men, *Philoctetes* has two. The Greeks need the bow of Philoctetes, whom they marooned on an island years ago with a festering wound. Odysseus sends the young Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, to win his trust and steal it.

### Neoptolemus and Philoctetes: the truth comes out

Neoptolemus now holds the bow, and Philoctetes trusts him completely. It starts on Philoctetes waking, *O sweet to wake to the broad day and find,* and ends on Neoptolemus's helpless *What shall we do, friends?* as Odysseus walks in. In between, the young man cracks:

> **NEOPTOLEMUS:** All is offensive when a man is false / To his true self and, knowing right, does wrong.
>
> **PHILOCTETES:** But thou dost naught in word or deed to shame / Thy birth in succouring a worthy man.
>
> **NEOPTOLEMUS:** I shall be proved a rogue; this tortures me.
>
> **PHILOCTETES:** Not in thy deeds—thy words do give me pause.
>
> *Source: Sophocles, Philoctetes, translated by Francis Storr ([Standard Ebooks](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sophocles/philoctetes/francis-storr/text/single-page)).*

It runs about seven minutes, and Philoctetes has most of it, including a 351-word speech that begins *Thou fire, thou utter monster,* once he learns he is going to Troy. Neoptolemus's words are few, so his work is listening: every line Philoctetes says makes the lie harder to hold. For a short cut, play from *All is offensive when a man is false* to Neoptolemus's *To obey my chiefs.*: about 220 words, under two minutes.

### Odysseus and Neoptolemus: the prologue

The play opens with Odysseus talking the young man into the lie. It starts on *Son of Achilles, Neoptolemus,* and ends on Neoptolemus's *I have consented; trust me for the rest.* and Odysseus's exit. About eight minutes, mostly Odysseus; it suits a teacher pairing a stronger actor with a newer one. For a short cut, start on Neoptolemus's *It comes to this that thou would’st have me lie.* and run to the same end: about 190 words, under a minute and a half, with the parts close to even.

## Rehearse it before you meet your partner

Scene partners rarely have as many free evenings as a ten-minute Greek scene needs. Working alone, the danger is learning your lines without hearing the cues, which is fatal in the volleys. Our guide on [how to rehearse a scene alone](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-rehearse-a-scene-alone) covers the solo routine, and [how to learn lines in verse](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-learn-lines-in-verse) covers Storr's meter.

In Offbook, upload the play, pick the pages of your scene, and choose your role; realistic voices read the other part and wait for your line before playing the next cue. As the video below shows, you can set how fast the other voice reads, so start the volleys slow and speed them up each run until the lines come as fast as an argument. When you're close, hide your own lines while your partner's stay on screen.

Video: [Pacing](https://www.offbook.com/learn/pacing) (1:09)

- Run each volley as pairs: their line, then yours, out loud, until you can say yours the instant theirs ends.
- Mark the word you steal. In many volleys your line repeats or flips one word from the line before; find it and hit it.
- Learn the long speeches as an argument in three or four steps, one sentence summary per step, then fill in the verse.
- Count your share. Our free [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter) shows who has how many lines in a pasted scene, and the [cue script maker](https://www.offbook.com/tools/cue-script-maker) turns your part into lines with their cues.

For playing the fight itself, our guide on [how to play an argument scene](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-play-an-argument-scene) applies to every scene here. More two-person scenes, sorted by pairing, are on our [acting scripts](https://www.offbook.com/acting-scripts) page.

## Questions actors ask

### What is the best Greek tragedy scene for two women?

Antigone and Ismene, the opening of *Antigone*, about five and a half minutes, is a classic choice. For something hotter, take Electra and Chrysothemis's second scene in *Electra*, which has a two-and-a-half-minute volley that works as a festival cut. Our list of [two-person scenes for two women](https://www.offbook.com/blog/two-person-scenes-for-two-women) has more choices.

### Is the Antigone and Creon scene good for acting class?

Yes. Both parts carry nearly equal weight, the argument is clear, and with the Chorus's two lines cut it runs about four and a half minutes at a brisk pace. It has a big speech for each actor and a fast volley between them, so a teacher can see both skills.

### Which translation of Antigone can I use for a scene?

Francis Storr's translation, first published in 1912, is public domain in the US and free to read on Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg, and our [Antigone page](https://www.offbook.com/plays/antigone). Modern translations are protected, so buy or borrow them. If you live outside the US, check your country's rules before copying any text.

### Are there Greek tragedy scenes for two men?

Yes. *Philoctetes* has two: Odysseus persuading Neoptolemus to lie, and Neoptolemus confessing it to Philoctetes. Oedipus and Teiresias in *Oedipus the King* is another, though the seer can be played by anyone. Our list of [two-person scenes for two men](https://www.offbook.com/blog/two-person-scenes-for-two-men) has more.

### How do you play a confrontation scene in Greek tragedy?

Play the argument, not the anguish. Each person has a case and believes it, so find the reasons in their lines and press them, and save the volume for the moment the case fails. In the one-line volleys, take the word your partner just used and throw it back.