The New York Times: At the close of Anna Ziegler’s “Actually,” a play about an accusation of sexual misconduct on an Ivy League campus, a feather flutters down from the ceiling. That’s a feather meant to tip the scales of justice. (Scales don’t always work that way, but just go with it.) The stage goes dark before the feather lands.
9 comments:
This is such a difficult topic to talk about and discuss with clarity, let alone portray onstage. The ambiguity and lack of evidence that so often goes along with these cases make legal actions muddy at best most of the time, which is why it can be so difficult to accurately represent through theatre. I have seen a lot of shows depicting rape over the past few years, and I would have to say few have felt sufficient or comprehensive, and maybe there is a reason for that. "Assault" covers a wide range of actions that can be taken against a person, some worse than others. The definitions are murky. The experiences are completely different from case to case. What I consider rape is different from how others define it. It would be next to impossible to write a show on this topic and do so in a way that is relatable or accurate to everyone who sees it, because it is such a heated topic with so many varying opinions on the subject. I do not know what should be done... or anything... people should just know that stuff like this is hard to watch and can be extremely difficult to do well. Sometimes it might be better to avoid it entirely.
I know the author says they shouldn't be in the business of telling people what not to write but I disagree. I don't think a rape or an assault is ever something to put in a play. And when I say ever I mean ever.
It is extremely alienating to any audience member who has ever been a victim of sexual violence. And because of sexual violence statistics we know that that is a lot of people. Many people are unaware of triggers and do not know how to cope.
I get the motivation to watch one of these plays and to write it. It is a political statement in a time when we think political statements are the only important art form. However, it isn't really a political statement when the victim portrayed is just that: a victim.
I also think that plays where it's about a rape that's in the news are incredibly insensitive. That survivor just wants to move on most likely and their story becomes a play that people will go to and misconstrue.
Survivors everywhere deserve playwrights who care about them.
I really hope to never see another play about rape again.
I found this article intriguing for several reasons including the fact in media sexual assault is not often treated with the seriousness that it deserves. Additionally, I agree with Joss for example, in shows like Louie and Game of Thrones sexual assault is used as a plot point. That is glanced over rather than given the proper weight which it deserves. Even when it is the focus of a piece, it rarely does the subject justice. I also think it is a sad reflection on the audience that we would rather watch stories that normalize assault rather than take the victim’s side and make the piece about a call for justice. Just as the author mentions, how we talk about these issues does matter and it affects the way that we think about assault and validating the victim’s claims.
This topic is such a challenge. I understand that theatre is a place where artists are free to be raw and truthful, but in the end a show is still a show. It is still entertainment. It is still, often, trivial. It is true not only in theatre, but in the media as well. Stories about sexual assault roll off people’s tongues as easily as the ten day forecast, and that scares me. Trauma should not be trivialized. It should not be written off. I agree with Joss and Rosie in their comments when they said that, sexual assault shouldn’t just be a plot point to make an audience uncomfortable. More often than not these depictions of assault are romanticized, which is incredibly wrong and an insult to anyone who has ever had to endure such a traumatic moment.
I think that as a whole we need to be more sensitive when dealing with issues of sexual assault in plays, as from what I have seen, theater makers sometimes tend to over romanticize or simplify such situations onstage as a plot device or theatrical element, when the issues associated with sexual assault and rape run are incredibly nuanced and carry immense personal weight for some audience members. If sexual assault is o be addressed in a show, I believe it must be done in a way that is unromantic and sensitive to the issues at hand, and only included when absolutely necessary to the action of the play as a whole. On another note, the presence of these scenes really has to be accompanied by a trigger warning, as audience members who have suffered a traumatic experience may not be prepared for such scenes. I think that we need to take a hard look at what we are saying through theater about sexual assault, and make sure that the statement we are making is right, and inclusive.
I think that this topic is complicated and uncomfortable to talk about. As theatre people, it is hard to portray such a complex issue on stage but I do agree with the author in that there must be stories told that validates the victim and makes it clear that their assaulter was clearly in the wrong. Though the argument may be made that this type of story would be "boring," I believe that playwrights are talented enough to create such a story. In addition to this, I don't understand why a he said, she said story can't be made with a side in mind so as to make the audience question why this type of injustice happens in reality rather than who was telling the truth in the context of the play. I feel like these stories that question the truth of events are important because it makes the audience think about people more complexly. But I don't see why there can't be some stories where it is not the victims words that are brought into question but the assaulters. These stories are so often told in a way that the audience thinks that the victim is lying but why are they not geared in a way to make the audience question that the assaulter is lying? I am of the opinion that a victim going unheard happens much more often than a false accusation and so the victim should not have to feel as if what they experienced is not valid.
My opinion on whether or not sexual assault should be portrayed on stage went back and forth as I read this article. On the one hand, I am a firm believer in theatre as a vehicle to express stories of the silenced and bring understanding to the greater audience. On the other hand, as many people have already mentioned on this post, scenes of sexual assault can be extremely triggering and alienating to audience members that have had those experiences themselves. This being said, I do think there is a line between portraying an actual scene of sexual assault onstage, and having a story about a person who has been assaulted in the past and is struggling to work out the implications of this among their friends, family, or colleagues. Firstly, I absolutely believe there should always be a clear and public trigger warning before a show that contains sensitive content such as sexual assault-- that way, survivors and friends of those can avoid a show that they might find potentially disturbing to them. Otherwise, I think it is of the utmost importance to make theatre that speaks for the voiceless and brings a higher level of awareness to those who luckily have not had these terrible experiences. Otherwise, why do we make theatre at all?
I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks in terms of narrative conveyance, especially in terms of plays, is that shifting framing and perspective on scenarios like these is uncomfortable, and people still want creative platforms to be escapist - not truthful - in nature. They want to be able to twist perspectives, and ask uncomfortable questions, and while I firmly believe that works that do things like this have a place in art to a point, especially as art that challenges us, we need to see the facts and the truth as well. What we see onstage and onscreen is a mirror for what we value as a society. And, as uncomfortable as it is, it is time we saw some truth there as well. Sure, art that aims for truth telling might not be a marketable or sellable to an audience as audiences do not want to sit is feelings of discomfort for 90 minutes or more. But that just means we have to shift the larger frame, and fix the very real cultural perspective of sexual assault, and its victims.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a show where a female is taken advantage of against her will, she manages to tell someone, and something is done about it. I wouldn’t mind seeing a show where she is not at fault, was obviously not asking for it, and gets the help and support she deserves to deal with psychological scars she didn’t ask for. I wouldn’t mind seeing shows like that because I have never read a story or seen a play that represented what it might be like in a perfect world if a woman could be heard and understood. And yeah that all sounds pretty fictional, but that is the world of theater. I think seeing shows like this will send the right kind of messages to society and maybe how to accurately deal with situations like these. The author of this article lists a lot of different kinds of shows that she has seen related to rape and assault but they all follow the same tragic classic story. The girl gets blamed. The girl gets hurt. The girl doesn’t tell anyone and if she does no one believes her and she just ends up getting even more hurt.
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