The Love of the Nightingale

“Listen. This is the noise of myth.  It makes the same sounds as shadow. Can you hear it?” - Evan Boland, ‘The Journey’ 

The Love of the Nightingale tells the story of two sisters, Procne and Philomele, daughters to King Pandion of Athens, whose lives are turned upside down after the elder daughter Procne is married to Tereus, King of Thrace, and taken to live among his people. A devastating chain of events is set in motion when Procne asks Tereus to return to Athens to fetch Philomele so that she may join her in Thrace. After a horrifying act of violence on the long journey, Philomele is literally and figuratively silenced, and must ultimately transform in the face of trauma in order to reclaim her voice and finally reunite with her sister.

Originally commissioned for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s adaptation of this classic Greek myth is a profound feminist examination of patriarchal power, cultures of silent complicity, and overcoming cycles of violence and abuse through symbolic transformation.  

“What is a myth”, the Chorus reminds us, but “the oblique image of an unwanted truth, reverberating through time”? This story is important to us because of its continuing relevance to our collective worlds, and the uncomfortable truths about our own cultures of violence and misogyny that it forces us to confront. If power is enunciated through the violence of nations and the men who lead them, and complicit silence its enabler, this play challenges us to intervene in the seemingly banal, timeless continuity of that violence by giving voice, bearing witness, and insisting on other possibilities. 

This play contains depictions of violence and sexual assault and is best suited for mature audiences

Performances: 12 - 15 October 2022 @ 20h00

15 October 2022 @15h00 (Matinee)

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