Ismene, sister of

Venue: Chamber - No one has thought of her anymore for three thousand years, her life was forgotten as was her death: Ismene is indiscriminate in an intermediate realm, after an existence without content of her own and a death without memory. Everything about her seems to be externally determined — by the ancient heroes of her family, the father Oedipus, the contentious brothers Eteocles and Polynices, but especially by her sister Antigone, who rebels against the tyranny of her Uncle Creon as an example — a heroic path that Insmene does not follow. Now, three thousand years later, Dutch author Lot Vekemans has visited this figure in oblivion and let her step out of the shadows. After an eternity of silence, Ismene faces her story.

The fact that Susanne Wolff, after her brilliant portrayal of Creon in Oedipus Stadt, also directed by Stephan Kimmig, is now playing this role of all things is more than just an irony of theatre fate. Creon is the man who kills half of Ismene's family, sends her father Oedipus into deadly exile and sentences Antigone to death. However, after the great Antigone drama, Lot Vekeman's continuation of the myth does not result in a bitter conflict between Creon and Ismene. Quite the opposite. Both continue to live in quiet seclusion and when Creon falls seriously ill years later, she patiently nurses him until his death, and so they, the survivors of the myth, form a kind of post-apocalyptic couple in spirit.

Susanne Wolff was nominated for the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST 2022 as Ismene in SCHWESTER.VON, a film by Jim Rakete based on the production Ismene, sister of (directed by Stephan Kimmig), Deutsches Theater Berlin, in the category Actors Acting.