Tour dates for Make Do and Mend
Domestic abuse is not a woman’s problem, it is society’s problem.
Changing Relations has been working away on the Women’s Voices Project for the last year and it is now time to snap up your tickets for the tour of ‘Make Do and Mend’.
Reflecting on childhood, motherhood and marriage, Make Do and Mend, which has been written and directed by Rachel Adamson, is a powerful production, telling real life stories of women in County Durham who have suffered and survived the trauma of domestic abuse.
Written in verbatim format, it invites the audience to experience first-hand three poignant local stories, in a visually compelling and moving production.
The aim is to help people to recognise what domestic abuse really is; that it is not always physical and or sexual violence, in line with the new law that recognises and criminalises patterns of coercive, controlling and psychologically abusive behaviour, including emotional, psychological, financial pressure.
Changing Relations wants to use the women’s voices project as a platform for changing attitudes that stereotypically veer towards asking domestic abuse victims questions such as ‘why didn’t you leave’ to ‘how can I help you’.
Audiences have described the group’s work as a “Visual and clever representation, an innovative way to communicate and resonate with people.”
Feedback from preview performances last year – to audiences in Newcastle and the European Parliament in Brussels – confirmed that this play has value for those affected by Domestic Abuse as an “empowering” reminder “of courage and hope and that there is a way out”.
It is also a valuable reminder that we are all responsible for bringing an end to this insidious crime; 87 per cent of our preview audience said they would be “more likely to offer to help somebody they suspected was experiencing domestic abuse as a result of watching our play”.
During Changing Relations’s first theatre production, Playing House, performed in 2014, the audience was invited to watch live theatre and dance, share their own stories, and discuss the issues raised with performers and professionals all within the setting of an immersive theatre set based on a home like yours or mine complete with tea and cake at the kitchen table.
We all need to take responsibility in educating ourselves and others on what safe and healthy relationships look like, what domestic abuse is and how to seek or get help when we recognise that it is happening.
Domestic abuse is not a woman’s problem, it is society’s problem.
To see the tour schedule, click here.