Fishamble: The New Play Company
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet the Team
    • Board & Governance
    • Community Engagement
    • Research
    • Encore
    • Fishamble Diaries
    • News
  • Productions
    • 2023 Programme
    • The Humours of Bandon
    • 2022 Programme
      • Heaven
      • Mustard
      • OUTRAGE
      • Pat Kinevane Plays
        • KING
        • Before
        • Silent
        • Forgotten
        • Underneath
      • The Treaty
      • Duck Duck Goose
    • 35 years of Fishamble
  • Artist Supports
    • 2022 Transantlantic Commissions Programme
    • Playwriting Courses
    • New Play Clinic
    • Send Us Your Writing
    • Fishamble New Writing Award
    • Mentoring & Workshops
    • Duets
  • Support Fishamble
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Corporate Membership
    • Sponsorship
    • Thank you
  • Tiny Plays
    • Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future
    • Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future Challenge
    • Tiny Plays 24/7
    • #TinyPlayChallenge
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland and America
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland 2
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland
  • Calendar
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Mustard
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet the Team
    • Board & Governance
    • Community Engagement
    • Research
    • Encore
    • Fishamble Diaries
    • News
  • Productions
    • 2023 Programme
    • The Humours of Bandon
    • 2022 Programme
      • Heaven
      • Mustard
      • OUTRAGE
      • Pat Kinevane Plays
        • KING
        • Before
        • Silent
        • Forgotten
        • Underneath
      • The Treaty
      • Duck Duck Goose
    • 35 years of Fishamble
  • Artist Supports
    • 2022 Transantlantic Commissions Programme
    • Playwriting Courses
    • New Play Clinic
    • Send Us Your Writing
    • Fishamble New Writing Award
    • Mentoring & Workshops
    • Duets
  • Support Fishamble
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Corporate Membership
    • Sponsorship
    • Thank you
  • Tiny Plays
    • Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future
    • Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future Challenge
    • Tiny Plays 24/7
    • #TinyPlayChallenge
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland and America
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland 2
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland
  • Calendar
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Mustard
3 Great Denmark Street
Dublin 1, Ireland
D01 NV63

info@fishamble.com
+353 1 670 4018
@fishamble
​#fishamble30


Registered Charity
No. CHY 20103958.
​
​

News

A Reckoning? by Deirdre Kinahan

15/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Charlie Bonner, Janet Moran, Rebecca Root, Karen Ardiff and Enda Oates in Rathmines Road by Deirdre Kinahan. Photography by Patrick Redmond.
A Reckoning?

It strikes me that Ireland is going through something of a reckoning at present. Recent referendums on civil liberties, tribunals into political ethics and corruption, inquiries into clerical and institutional abuse, all signal an enormous shift in Irish thinking. The iron grip of Catholicism and stifling absolutism of class and convention are beginning to dissipate, and to my mind that is a good thing. Unfortunately there are many areas in which we still fail and fail spectacularly.

In Rathmines Road, I want to explore our collective response to accusations of rape and sexual assault, and our complete failure judicially, socially and culturally, to negotiate the dreadful consequences of these crimes. So I decided to place a victim of sexual assault into a situation where he/she can confront that abuse in a public way and then watch each character shift and spin in the ways described by survivors. I wanted to try to feel what it is like to be blamed for inciting the very crime committed on you. What it is like to be constantly doubted. What it is like to be perpetually judged and labelled by that crime. What it is like to see your story, your truth and your dignity stolen from you by the people affected by that accusation – and how quickly the response becomes not about you but about them, and how your accusation affects them. I wanted to try to feel what it is like to disappear – disappear into an abyss where every social cultural and judicial reflex conspires to silence, to shame and to deny…YOU.

It was in writing the play that I began to understand how the failure of our response is often governed by gender and the cultural expectations associated with gender. Boys will be boys remember and good girls don’t get drunk or don’t go into bedrooms at parties unless they are willing to be sexually assaulted or raped. It sounds absurd. I have to say I have trouble even writing that sentence, but how many daytime-chat-show callers, opinion-column writers, neighbours, solicitors or indeed deluded bishops give air to the notion that a victim of sexual assault is in some way culpable – if not asking for it? It is extraordinary how control of the narrative of a crime is often removed from the person at the centre of it, then reshaped to fit the needs of those around them.

The perpetrator of sexual assault rarely admits their crime, rarely sees it and in most cases is never forced to answer for it. And so you will see how each character in Rathmines Road attempts to take control of the story and recreate it in some way to suit their sense of themselves. You will see how some characters lie, lie constantly, and lie first to themselves because the capacity for human denial never ceases to amaze me, particularly when backed up by silence. Silence sits at the heart of Rathmines Road because, unfortunately, silence remains the go-to response for survivors, their abusers and ourselves. Silence means we might not have to respond at all.

Thank you,
Deirdre Kinahan.

September 2018


​
Rathmines Road by Deirdre Kinahan, directed by Jim Culleton, presented by Fishamble: The New Play Company and the Abbey Theatre, runs at The Peacock Stage of The Abbey Theatre as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2018 until October 13, continuing its run till October 27.
Book Tickets
More Information
0 Comments

    Fishamble News

    Announcements, news and special events from Fishamble.

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

​Want to be the first to know about our upcoming events and programmes? Sign up to our newsletter below.

Fishamble: The New Play Company is supported by

Picture
Picture
Picture
 
©2022 Fishamble Theatre Company All Rights Reserved. Registered Company No. 168484
Fishamble Theatre Company is a not for profit organisation and a registered charity with a valid charitable taxation exemption from the Revenue Commissioners. Registered Charity No. CHY 20103958.

Privacy Policy ​
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet the Team
    • Board & Governance
    • Community Engagement
    • Research
    • Encore
    • Fishamble Diaries
    • News
  • Productions
    • 2023 Programme
    • The Humours of Bandon
    • 2022 Programme
      • Heaven
      • Mustard
      • OUTRAGE
      • Pat Kinevane Plays
        • KING
        • Before
        • Silent
        • Forgotten
        • Underneath
      • The Treaty
      • Duck Duck Goose
    • 35 years of Fishamble
  • Artist Supports
    • 2022 Transantlantic Commissions Programme
    • Playwriting Courses
    • New Play Clinic
    • Send Us Your Writing
    • Fishamble New Writing Award
    • Mentoring & Workshops
    • Duets
  • Support Fishamble
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Corporate Membership
    • Sponsorship
    • Thank you
  • Tiny Plays
    • Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future
    • Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future Challenge
    • Tiny Plays 24/7
    • #TinyPlayChallenge
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland and America
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland 2
    • Tiny Plays for Ireland
  • Calendar
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Mustard