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The after effects of rape
SIMON PARSONS salutes drama that registers how the impact of the sexual assault ripples out through every element of a family’s existence
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a detailed history of Gaza that demonstrates its historic resilience and changing economy
RON JACOBS welcomes the long overdue translation of an epic work that chronicles resistance to fascism during WWII
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
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CHRIS MOSS welcomes a radical history that brings marginalised stories and overlooked people and agencies to the centre
When It Happens To You
Park Theatre, London
AMERICAN author Tawni O’Dell’s deeply personal memoir about the rape of her grown-up daughter Esme and the shattering after-effects on both her and her children must have been an important cathartic exercise when first performed in New York, with O’Dell playing herself, but risks being too intimate and personalised to fully work on stage.
With Amanda Abbington at the heart of the European Premiere taking Tawni’s role as Tara, Esme’s divorced mother, the play’s simple narrative style becomes more than just a dramatic reading as the enduring impact of the sexual assault ripples out through every element of the family’s existence.
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