About the work
“Ismene, Schwester von” is a monologue for one actress by the Dutch playwright Lot Vekemans; its original title is “Zus van”, and the German translation by Eva M. Pieper is published for the stage as “Schwester von” (Sister of). The play premiered on 7 January 2005 at the Toneelschuur in Haarlem, produced by the MAM foundation together with Publiekstheater Gent, directed by Allan Zipson and performed by Elsie de Brauw. Its German-language premiere followed on 22 October 2010 in Konstanz, as a double bill with Sophocles’ “Antigone”.
Plot
Ismene, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta and sister of Antigone, breaks almost three thousand years of silence and turns directly to the audience to tell her own story for the first time. She looks back on a family marked by incest and power struggles, on her feuding brothers Eteocles and Polynices and on the rule of her uncle Creon. At the centre is her decision not to join her sister's defiance: Ismene survived, yet she remains the inconspicuous minor figure beside the famous heroine and wrestles with guilt, shame and the question of what a life without a great deed is worth.
Cultural significance
For “Zus van” and “Truckstop” Lot Vekemans received the Van der Vies Prize in 2005, and Elsie de Brauw was nominated for the Theo d’Or for her performance as Ismene. The monologue is regarded as a worldwide stage success and is also performed at several theatres in the German-speaking countries. When Vekemans received the Ludwig Mülheims Theatre Prize in 2016, the jury singled out her figures in the shadow of great heroes, Ismene among them.