The opening play takes the form of a prayerful lament for the many women who have died as a result of intimate partner violence and the conspiracy of silence that conceals it. The three women (Veena Sudarshan, Elisa Cristello and Dede Attipoe) who take part in Divine Devotion (writer, Suzy Wilds, director, Uma Kali Shakti) are of different ethnicity, age and circumstances and their disturbing dialogue takes place against a rack of dresses suggesting the wasted lives of their many sisters.
Besides victimisation, the common link between the three women is that they each are mothers, and mothers are a special focus of this presentation. In She Drinks (Jane Cafarella, Chrissy da Silva) a lively, polished monologue beautifully delivered by a daughter (Liz Hovey) who satirically exposes her father’s demoralisation of her mother. By contrast, the sad Maybe Another Time (Natalie Baruch, Wayne Mitchell) highlights the desperation of a badly demoralised mother (Debbie Tilley) unable to help her daughter Kate (Angela Gibson) who is also intimidated by a controlling husband. As mother and daughter talk without connecting they are flanked on either side by racks of drying clothes referencing the prison that domesticity has become for them. Both pieces although so different in tone suggest that the induced dysfunctionalism of the mother is likely to be inherited by the daughter until the cycle is broken.
Zara Welt (Melissa Day) of I Just Want My Little Family (based on an interview with Tara Weldon, director, Vee Malnar) in a standout performance also illustrates imprinted familial dysfunctionalism as well as blind faith in a happy ending. Zara’s ethnicity and social background is clearly communicated without recourse to stereotypical markers as she explores the influence growing up in an atmosphere of alcohol-fueled aggression has had upon her life. She has clung to her boyfriend despite bouts of violence partly from a refusal to believe that she, her boyfriend and their baby could never become the happy little nexus she imagined and partly because she could see no other way of survival for herself and her child. Her story emphasises the importance of the intervention of others who can offer help and the personal courage necessary to benefit from it.
Some of the plays, for instance, When We Were Living Together (based on an interview with Nicole Ryan and Vee Malna, director, Natasha McDonald) and Good Men Do Bad Things (Suzy Wilds, Margaret Barnaby) are very painful to witness and some like I Saw Red (Natalie Banach, Garreth Cruikshank) and Whirlpools (Alex Broun, Natasha McDonald) are frightening. Others like the hilarious Mandy the Mediator (Vee Malnar, Tom Miller) and The Game of Your Life (Loueen Winters, Glen Groves), a clever play on snakes and ladders, seamlessly supported by back projection, make use of laughter to raise questions about governmental solutions. Some like My Knight in Dull Armour (Pete Malicki, Leisa Eisman) are uncomfortably, horribly convincing.
Owing to the code of silence imposed on women by the convention that her situation must remain private, maladjusted men have been able to impose a reign of terror within the confines of the domestic space. Women are subjected to constant criticism and harassment inside the home and subject to demeaning vigilance when they are outside it. The final play, a low-key but moving monologue (Sarah North), offers us such an extreme domestic scenario where mother and daughter must obey Daddy’s rule of “nobody in, and nobody out” and where the child must be as quiet “as a mouse” in order to be safe. However, As a Mouse (Kate Rotherham, Kaye Lope) ends a worthwhile evening of theatre on a hopeful and gentle note.
In this Improvising Change presentation, artistic director, Joy Roberts, her technical support personnel, and dedicated actors have made a powerful contribution to the fight for the eradication of domestic violence. It is to be hoped that this very special theatre experience, Rhymes with Silence, will carry its message to other venues.
