Whether it is the flavour of the moment or some subterranean influence of the ongoing political chaos of the Greek people’s desperate struggle against their Euro persecutors, classical Greek tragedy abounds in theatre at present.

Any treatment of these seminal plays must attempt to find a meaning that chimes with modern sensibilities. Dutch director Ivo van Hove’s production of Sophocles’s drama of the daughter of Oedipus who defies the decree of Creon, King of Thebes, that the body of her rebellious brother should be left without burial, has stripped the play of any historical trappings.

This epic conflict between political authority and personal integrity is fought out on a bare platform under the cruel dominance of a great sun orb, against projections of shifting shadows and fleeting arid landscapes.

The gods, who must have been a real presence to the original audiences, have no role here, but remain indifferent to human suffering.

Ann Carson’s new translation mixes moments of poetic intensity with crunching current idioms — “to steer a city you need top-notch advisers” and “slaves shouldn’t think big.”

As Antigone, the French screen actress Juliette Binoche conveys the psychological stress of her unflinching determination with calculated restraint while Patrick O’Kane’s Creon at times overpitches his dictatorial obduracy, climaxing in his final hysterical grief having destroyed not only Antigone but in the process his whole family.

Ivo van Hove skilfully apportions the traditional Chorus observations on the action between the cast leading the audience to recognise the individual and social catastrophe inevitable where compromise is impossible.

Greek tragedy, just as the world depicted in our everyday newscasts, reminds us that death is present throughout as the final human arbiter.

Runs until August 22. Box office (0131) 473-2000.

Review by Gordon Parsons