Djuna Barnes’s great verse drama, written in part about her own family, was first published in 1958, and was last reprinted in her Selected Writings of 1962. Since that time the play has been out of print. The play certainly is a strange one; even the author observes in her cautionary note to the volume that ‘a misreading of the Antiphon is not impossible’. However, upon its original publication, Dag Hammarskjold translated this highly poetic and theatrical play into Swedish, and it was performed at the Royal Swedish Theatre to mostly positive reviews.