Ruth Leon recommends… Pale Sister – Colm Tóibín

Pale Sister – Colm Tóibín

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Pale Sister reimagines Sophocles’  Antigone from the point of view of her sister, Ismene. The play follows Ismene as she recounts her sister’s infamous defiance of their uncle, Creon, the king of Thebes, and decides what to do as the pressure mounts on the submissive young woman to act.

This is an absolutely dazzling solo performance from the Irish actor Lisa Dwan  as Ismene, Antigone, and many other characters. A former ballet dancer, she is a Beckett specialist and regularly writes, lectures, and teaches on theatre, gender, and Beckett. Toibin wrote Pale Sister for Dwan, whose work was unfamiliar to me before I watched, mesmerised, by a story as old as time and as contemporary as the gender wars.

Colm Tóibín is one of Ireland’s most celebrated living authors, known for his novels including The Master, Nora Webster, The Testament of Mary, and Brooklyn, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Domnhall Gleeson.

Pale Sister was directed by Trevor Nunn,  former head of the RSC, former director of blockbuster musicals, former Director of the National Theatre, who has used his time since relinquishing those ‘big’ jobs to take on projects which often fly under the mainstream radar.

He now directs small-scale plays in tiny theatres, encourages young actors and directors and often pops up in unlikely places such as this off-beat production based on a seminar about Antigone given by Toibin and Dwan at Columbia University. This is a reworking of the Antigone story from a modern playwright, focusing on the role of women in society.

Pale Sister is stunning. Don’t miss it.

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