Ismene has a warm heart. She has a loving, gentle and innocent outlook on life and seeks to be the peacemaker at every turn. She hates pain and conflict so wishes calm and unity for everyone in her world. She is not naive about life but always wants to turn away from the dark side and make things better. Ismene is the younger sister of Antigone and the niece of Creon their King. Antigone is to marry Haemon, Creon’s son and therefore their cousin.

Ismene has a very strong moral compass, knowing right from wrong. She doesn’t want to get into trouble, as Antigone willingly does, but Ismene knows when to make a stand. She does not want to challenge the authority of Creon but when she knows morality is a stake then she will.

Further research on Ismene’s character finds ;

https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/antigone-sophocles/ismene

Like her sister, Ismene seems to value family ties and the laws of the gods over the laws of man. However, she’s just not gutsy enough to stand up for her beliefs. The courage to stand beside her sister does eventually come to Ismene. When Creon arrests both daughters of Oedipus, Ismene asks that she be executed alongside Antigone. Antigone, however, scorns Ismene’s belated attempt at righteousness.

The strong will of Antigone is often praised but if Antigone were a bit more like her sister, this wouldn’t be a tragedy at all. Ismene’s argument at the beginning of the play is that their family has suffered enough. What’s the point of bringing more sorrow? Ismene may be ‘weaker’ than Antigone but she wants her family to just live in peace.

Process of character development

Once I had found my way into the character of Ismene by doing some initial research and brainstorming I had to apply my thoughts to the rehearsals which meant that I was seeing my character against the others in the play. Antigone ( Ella) and I have an intense on stage relationship and so it was clear that we had to work well together and be believable as the two sisters. There had to be a balance in our energy and dynamics so that we complemented each other. We had to find a balance between each character being different ( Antigone very strong, Ismene gentle) but each character also being present and clear and not overshadowed completely by the other one.

The characters and the strength of how we might play them came quite naturally to Ella and me which was great. We had a good chemistry which made working together easy and also made us gel well as the 2 sisters on stage. More of our discussions were about practical things like blocking, timing, connections with a look or a touch and any pauses we wanted to find.

When I was thinking about our view on the ‘do I bury the body’ situation, I could see that the sisters represent 2 very different but equally important views. It is the HEAD and HEART speaking about the same thing but with opposing perspectives. Ismene as the head thinker is rational. Antigone the heart thinker is passionate.

ISMENE the HEAD; ” We are the last ones left sister and what death is promised for us. More terrible than any if we break the law.”

ANTIGONE the HEART; ” I won’t betray him now that he’s dead. No one will ever throw that in my face.”

Voice

I had a challenge to work on the pitch of my voice because to begin with I was delivering the emotional words in a high register all the time. I think that when I/Ismene got fired up about the situation then my voice would rise. Lauren gave me feedback about lowering the pitch of my voice and trying to still be as emotional but keeping the register lower. She also helped me to find more variety with a range of strengths and levels in my voice. At first I was delivering the emotional speeches on one level which gets too samey to listen to. I had to find space and variety in my rhythm and pitch.

Ella was also looking for variety with her speech delivery. She was very strong but needed to find places to pull back and not be at number 10. We worked by helping each other out offering feedback as to when speech could be tweeked and given a different quality.

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Costume

The whole piece has an industrial feel. We have spoken about visual references like the Hunger Games which then dictates our costume choices. Creon, the King, will wear a suit, Haemon will wear an army outfit and a suit. This shows he is ‘at one with the people’ and also a King. The chorus wear military clothing. Ella and I are wearing industrial street wear. The overall design means that we are pretty much wearing monotone, not bright colours like the set.

My choice of costume makes me feel grounded and alive on stage. It gives me energy as I feel bold and striking in the ‘tough’ look that the combat pants give. I really like wearing the Doc Marten boots as they encourage me to have a strong stance and presence that helps me to deliver Ismene as a bold and clear, even if gentle, person.

Comparison to other fictional characters

I have done some research and thinking about sisters in other plays, films and stories and where I can find similarities with the relationship betwen me and Antigone.

The most striking similarity I can find are the characters of Katniss and her younger sister Prim from the Hunger Games. Katniss is bold, brave and passionate and takes the place of her younger sister Prim who is more gentle, nervous and more naive. Katniss does this to protect her sister. Although they are very different, Katniss and Prim are still very close, like Antigone and Ismene.

There are 4 sisters in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and each have very different characters. There is Meg the eldest and most sensible, Jo the passionate writer, Beth the vain and romantic and Amy the youngest, thoughtful and musical. I see Antigone as being like Jo and Ismene as Amy. The 2 sisters are very different in personality but are very loyal and close.

Acting Principles;

Within the process of becoming Ismene I have thought about the techniques we have been studying within acting and Uta Hagan and Stanislavski.

These 9 questions are a way of having a deeper understanding of your character so that you can have more depth and understanding of them which you should then bring to your performance. It’s like understanding their back story so that there is a truth to them. I looked at all of the 9 questions and answered them as Ismene in this way;

I found this process really helpful for example, answering ” Who am I ” I reminded myself that I am Antigone’s younger sister, niece to the King and a woman in society. Asking “What do I want’ was good because it made me see that I DON’T want my sister to go against the King’s decree but I raelly DO want my brother to be buried so this made me see the conflict in myself.

Stanislavski was a Russian actor and Director who developed a naturalistric approach called method acting.

Emotion memory

I thought back to times that I had to really try and persuade someone of something in my life and how this made me feel.

Public Solitude

Me and Ella create a Public Solitude in our first scene by having an intimate discussion that the audience feels like they should not be hearing. I like the tension this creates.

Imagination

I really like the Hiunger Games Trilogy and have watched it a lot so I used this as a resource for my imagination. I thought about the scenes of danger and angst that the sisters shared to try and connect with the deep emotion and disagreement between the sisters.