Domestic abuse: New Rotherham theatre project seeks to place survivors at its centre

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, artistic director Karen Mulcahey explains where the idea for the play originated. “I was thinking about Sarah Everard, and I just thought ‘everything about this is wrong,’” she says.

“Not only was it another woman being murdered, but it was also by a member of the police. It was this collective realisation that the problem is in the system, and that the system is letting women down.

“It also came through thinking about how women are perceived, and the knowledge of growing up as a woman who didn't really fit into the idea of what a girl should be, and thinking that it doesn't matter, because whatever you do, you can walk down the street and men will still shout at you.”

Using data from the Office For National Statistics, the play’s opening paints a stark picture of the scale of domestic abuse across the UK.

A voiceover tells the audience: “The police are called out to, on average, 1,150,000 domestic violence calls per year in England and Wales. In England and Wales, 1.6 million women reported experiencing domestic abuse per year compared with 757,000 men. 77 per cent of victims of domestic homicide were female, compared with 13 per cent of victims of non-domestic forms of homicide.”

To gather first-hand accounts of these issues, Breakout Arts spent time with charities and groups across Rotherham and Sheffield, including Sheffield Women’s Aid and Apna Haq. The group then ran workshops with survivors of domestic abuse, listening to their stories first-hand as the play began to take shape.

“Being involved in discussions and drama helped me open up in a safe way. It felt like I was offloading but helping at the same time,” says Samantha Richmond, a survivor who worked with the group. “Triggers need to be dealt with to move on. It's part of a healing process. If people going through abuse can learn how to get help, and know there is a way out, then it's a real positive step towards giving victims some confidence.”

Using only three actors with a rotating cast, Breakout Arts’ production follows the stories of three women, each from different sections of society. Shannon is a college student who has formed a new relationship, while Anya’s story is that of a young woman who moves to England with her newly wedded husband. The third story follows the character Jenny, who works in a well-paid job and is married to a doctor. Each relationship is revealed to be abusive.

“I want to encourage people to talk about these issues, because the more we do, the less likely we are to allow domestic violence to happen at all,” says Home Safe? actor Eleanor May Blackburn, “Going into a support group of female survivors, I was in complete awe of their bravery.”

The group has also run workshops at local schools with young people aged 14 to 16, encouraging them to talk about the language which surrounds gender, and how this can feed into issues of power and control. This is something Karen says is central to what she hopes the play will achieve.

“It's about educating people on the signs,” she says, “and not just the signs of control, but also how language is used. “When we did a workshop at a school we gave out a list of words and asked kids if they were to pick a gender, what gender would you apply to these words.

"What was really depressing is that a lot of the girls put the word leader as male. I just thought: ‘my god, these ideas are still there, that men lead and that women are passive.

“It cuts deep, this idea of what men and women are in our arts and culture and in our language - the idea of the passive fairy - the beautiful woman who gets awakened by the prince. I want people to notice how language affects us, and how those stereotypes are still there and need challenging, or at least unpicking.”

One of the most shocking things which came up in the group's research, Karen notes, is how widespread the issue of domestic abuse is. “I think some people have the idea that abuse is all white working class women or in a lot of people's heads its lower class drunken families, but it's not at all, it is a thing that happens everywhere to everyone,” says Karen

“It's in every social class, every age group and every race, and it happens in the LGBT community. It happens to women more commonly, but it does happen to men as well, and it can sometimes be harder for them to say.”

Jake Baxter is another local survivor who worked with Breakout Arts. “I want people to take away the signs of abuse and coercive control. To understand it may not appear the way they would imagine, and to change their perspective of what an abuser looks like,” he says. “It felt cathartic to sit in a room of talented artists who were like sponges, soaking up my story and my words. To be heard and genuinely listened to. It was a beautiful moment”

Breakout Arts is holding an open performance of Home Safe? at Rotherham College on Tuesday, February 28 at 7pm, with a suggested donation of £3. To pre-book tickets contact [email protected].

Further performances are expected across Rotherham and Sheffield, with stagings and workshops open for booking after February 28.