In February, I had the pleasure of watching Two Sisters, a new play written by David Greig and directed by Wils Wilson.   Starring Jess Harwick, Shauna MacDonald and Erik Olsson, it ran at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh from 10^th February to 2^nd March 2024. Please note this post contains spoilers for Two Sisters.

The play tells the story of two sisters: Emma and Amy (played by Jessica Hardwick and Shauna Macdonald), returning as adults to the caravan park they visited as teenagers.  I was struck by the way in which Two Sisters uses inventive and immersive techniques to play with time and nostalgia. As an audience, we are invited to venture back to our own teenage years and then forward to our dreams for our future.  As Amy and Emma return to their childhood memories, we too are compelled to assess how our lives match up to those childhood dreams and aspirations.  As we connect with our own memories, experiences and emotions, this draws us further into the plight of these characters on the stage, making the play all the more emotive, connecting and powerful.

When we meet Amy, she has fled her home, leaving her husband and children after her affair has been discovered.  She seeks shelter with her sister Emma, who is on the cusp of motherhood and has made her own escape, however briefly, from her busy job as a lawyer to write a novel.  As the play unfolds, more of Amy’s past is revealed through a chance meeting with a past teenage holiday romance: Lance.  Amy’s life is in an acute state of chaos and the play charts her attempts to both reconcile her past and plan her future.  This provides fertile ground for a psychological exploration of her character and this psychological portrait, seeks to summarise and contemplate the various experiences and relationships that have likely shaped how she views herself, others and the world.  Moreover, it attempts to consider how this is likely to have led her to this current juncture in life. Whilst watching the play, we witness Amy stuck in a cycle of using protective strategies such as avoidance, putting on a front and entering into new relationships, to guard against her key fears. Unfortunately, these have dire consequences and likely confirm the fears she has about her self and the world. As the play climaxes, Amy is given the opportunity to rekindle her love with Lance and travel the world, the thing she was promised and longed for as a teenager. This would only perpetuate and embolden these protective strategies: seeking validation from others, embarking on another relationship and avoiding family responsibility. Amy’s character arc through the play, shows her breaking free of this oppressive cycle of ill fated safety behaviours, and she unexpectedly rebuffs Lance’s offer with a resolve to return and attempt to repair her marriage.