"So what was it like to tell off Anne Decker?" I ask Stefanie Londino.

The young actress laughs as she recalls SLAC's recent production of "Master Class," in which she played an opera student named Sharon and Decker played her teacher, Maria Callas, who gets a piece of Sharon's mind in return for her cutting remarks.

"I view that moment from the point of view of an actor," Londino says. "If you do something like that in real life, your career is done. If you put yourself at odds with such a great name.... Sharon basically writes herself off in that moment. Saying that is more important to her than having the career that she's worked so hard to have."

And it's the opposite of Londino's current character. In SLAC's "Too Much Memory," she plays Ismene, who argues for following the rules while her sister, Antigone, acts as the rebel.

The play, by Keith Reddin and Meg Gibson, is Sophocles' "Antigone," transported from 5th century B.C. to the present day. The brothers of Ismene and Antigone died fighting in a civil war, and the new leader, Creon, declared that one should be honored while the other, Polynices, should be disgraced with the harshest punishment of the time, to lie unburied as carrion prey. Ismene doesn't think it's worth risking the death penalty to bury Polynices, while Antigone does.

In "Too Much Memory," which won the Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Play at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival, Antigone's actions result in a long public debate with Creon over her right to protest, which offers a chance for the script to bring in echoes of more modern day protests. The playwrights have said that older people tend to see Creon's point of view, while younger people relate more to Antigone's.

Nicki Nixon, who plays Antigone, says she "absolutely" sides with her character. "It's really hard for me to see Creon's point of view," she says. "I understand that it exists and I understand there's reasons behind it, but I'm 24 and I get to be uncompromising and romantic and idealistic about my beliefs, and I'm enjoying it."

"It's so funny, because I can't see hers; I only see Creon's, and I'm 23," says Londino, while sitting with Nixon before a Jan. 29 rehearsal. "I guess the cost is too high for me. The beauty and the tragedy of being the one who just obeys the law is it's hard to see the fault. It is law, and that is it. I don't think her thought process ever goes beyond that. The consequences are the same, whether it's right or wrong, and the consequences are not worth it to me."

Some may wonder whether modernizing the plot minimizes its impact, since our culture doesn't unconditionally accept that unburied bodies are doomed to live in limbo, but Nixon doesn't think so. "Antigone's higher truth is there regardless of the time," she says. "It's a matter of honoring family. Polynices was like a father to her and she owes him that honor, regardless of any law."

Another important man in Antigone's life is Haemon, with whom she breaks off her engagement early in the play. "Many people might think she's breaking off a relationship with him, when really she's executing it the only way she knows how," Nixon says. "She's loving him the only way she knows how, which is to be true to herself. Haemon is the reason she has the strength and the courage to go forward and do what she knows is right."

Londino comments that all the characters in Greek theater tend to be symbols. "Antigone becomes the embodiment of liberty and freedom," she says. "Creon symbolizes the law and the government. Haemon is a symbol of love. And I honestly think that Ismene values life."

The ultimate message, says Nixon, is to stand up for what you think is right. "I side with Antigone," she says, "and people side with Creon. I think it's just a matter of knowing yourself well enough to pick a side and believe in something."