One commentator has suggested that productions such as Nirbhaya present rape as entertainment. But violence in theatre makes us contemplate something we may prefer to disregard"You can pay to see a woman raped and abused at the Edinburgh fringe," wrote Tiffany Jenkins final week, suggesting that there was too much rape on our stages (and on TV), or perhaps it was time we looked away from these productions. Oddly ignoring the EIF production of Histoire d'Amour which did indeed approach perilously close to a rape fantasy offered up as entertainment without commentary,the examples she focused on were Nirbhaya, a production inspired by the rape and murder of a young Indian student who was attacked on a bus in Mumbai, and Common Wealth's Our Glass House,a piece approximately domestic violence, something which affects one in four women living in the UK but which remains a largely hidden crime. Were these "toxic dramas" as Jenkins claims, and simply women attempting to raise awareness approximately the threats they face every single day of their lives,using a theatrical form which allows them and us to consider violence and address its causes and maybe think approximately some of the solutions? Both pieces were almost unbearable to watch, but a theatre which did not contemplate violence would be a theatre which was turning a blind eye to the realities of the world in which we live. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com