Sister of

Lot Vekemans' play takes a look at Ismene, the daughter of Oedipus and sister to Antigone who, despite playing her small part in the tragedies of her oh so famous family failed to really make much impact herself. In the form of a monologue, the somewhat confused Ismene, dead for a few thousand years, sees the audience as her long awaited judges, her chance, after all this time, to tell her story and move on to ... well, she's not quite sure, but to move on anyway. And the story of which she is a part is such a famous one, yet her own role in that epic is neither a proud nor a memorable one ... she is the one, ever in the shadow of her sister, who remains alive when all her family are dead (mostly by their own hands) yet it is that very survival, and the need to live out the remains of her life, which is her shame - the shame of never being brave enough to do anything interesting.

Judith Amsenga and Nick Bruckman's translation moves along at a rollicking pace though I do feel that Lot's original script gives us too much of the Greek story in the middle of the play - I liked the earlier, veiled references to the Oedipus tale that leave the audience to do more of the work filling in the gaps and which also leave Ismene as more a symbol for all the other footnotes of history (i.e. us, if we're lucky, otherwise most of us will end up as an incomplete and inaccurate Wikipedia page!).

Judith Amsenga's performance, which started before the audience came in and was unphased by late-comers, really did, as they say, run the gamut. From mousey nervousness to angry screamer she carried us along with her characterisation and a consistent and coherent physicality that said asmuch about this strange Ismene as the words ever could.

It is surprising how much distance can be achieved in such as small space. Bringing Ismene right to the feet of the audience as well as the back of the stage Nick Buckman's direction made the most of the Bike Shed's beautiful but small and quirky space and kept this simply set production full of interest.

I saw this at the Exeter Fringe, but expect more performances of this intriguing production over the coming year - well worth checking out if you see them coming.