Ruth Leon recommends… Pale Sister
Ruth Leon recommendsPale Sister
Pale Sister, by the celebrated author Colm Tóibín, is a retelling of Sophocles’ classic tale of Antigone as seen from the point of view of her sister Ismene who recounts Antigone’s infamous defiance of their uncle, Creon, the king of Thebes.
Here’s what happens when a woman speaks truth to power. Written for actor Lisa Dwan who is the play’s only performer, and the obvious choice for this role, being an Irish actor who has triumphed in the plays of Samuel Beckett in which she was mentored by Beckett’s favourite actor, Billie Whitelaw. The director is Trevor Nunn.
Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet and, since 2017, Chancellor of the University of Liverpool. Notably, he is a professor of the humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan. Lisa Dwan was a 2017–2018 artist in residence at Columbia University, and Pale Sister derived from the class they taught together called “The Antigone Project”.
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