Theatregoers will be invited to “hurl abuse at a man in a suit” as they experience some of the rage and pain of survivors of the Epstein scandal at a new stage production in London this summer.
Playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz has created an immersive theatrical show that promises to give proper weight to the women’s stories.
“The idea came from a collective rage around the Epstein files. Not just the horrific events and their scale, but how it has been handled,” said Lenkiewicz, the screenwriter behind She Said, the acclaimed 2022 film about the New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein. “We wanted to make a work centred on the female perspective – and not on the men and the money.”
The site-specific performance in the City of London will allow theatregoers to move between rooms to hear different narratives. All the scenes and monologues have been written for Lenkiewicz by All the Rage, a group of 45 established writers, and revolve around a central drama staged in the middle of the space which will take up the whole floor of Theatre Deli’s former office-building location in Leadenhall Street.
“The truth of all this is unfortunately stranger than fiction,” Lenkiewicz told The Observer this weekend. “It is so awful that so much could have been prevented and that the release of all the Epstein documents was done so irresponsibly. The named women were thrown back into emotional trauma without warning. Many survivors had no agency or choices at the time; they were girls living nomadic lives and came from disadvantaged backgrounds. So many enablers have not yet been held to account.”
‘We wanted to make a work centred on the female perspective – and not on the men and the money’
‘We wanted to make a work centred on the female perspective – and not on the men and the money’
Rebecca Lenkiewicz, writer
Her project is funded by a male “theatrical angel” and will involve 12 simultaneous dramatic installations. “You will come for two hours and go into different rooms where you can feel rage, hope, healing, or just hurl abuse at a man in a suit,” Lenkiewicz explained. “Some will be poetic responses, but they will all express ideas about the history of misogyny. Many of the writers involved are also actors, and some of the writers may also perform.”
Lenkiewicz hopes to counter “the hideous tone of all this male banter and the casual evil of it all”, she said. She was inspired by comparisons to a Victoria sex-trafficking scandal that rocked London in 1885. That summer the Pall Mall Gazette ran a series of stories exposing the systematic abuse of young girls. Parliament was petitioned to act, and there was a major demonstration in Hyde Park. The brothel-keeper involved in the story, Mary Jeffries, was eventually prosecuted under a new act drawn up to protect underage girls. Her male clients went free.
Lenkiewicz’s event is not the only attempt to redirect the response to the sex trafficking and child abuse of the late American financier. Last month, as Vogue magazine reported, more than 40 American models and model agents called for state authorities to unmask more of “Epstein’s decades’ worth of predation” in a public letter that urged further investigation into “the systems that made Epstein’s operation possible”.
Signatories to the Model Alliance letter include the agency’s founder Sara Ziff, the US actor and model Beverly Johnson, Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez and author Lisa Phillips. It draws attention to the alleged roles of several modelling agency founders and other industry figures, such as Epstein’s late friend Jean-Luc Brunel in recruiting and grooming victims.
Last week the campaigning feminist lawyer Harriet Wistrich highlighted the available legal routes for bringing to justice those involved in Epstein’s trafficking of girls and women in Britain.
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Next month playwrights and actors in a second theatrical group will stage another London show that aims to give a voice to those damaged by Epstein’s network of sexual exploitation.
Their drama Terrifying Women 7: Unredacted will be performed in south London’s Bold theatre on Saturday 9 May. It consists of seven short plays, written at speed and performed script in hand. Each of the playwrights has answered a prompt question: “What do you feel now?”
“It’s really heartening to know there are other responses being created,” said a spokesperson for the production in support of Lenkiewicz’s immersive drama. “Hopefully there will be loads of angry and creative responses popping up with art and action that will challenge and break things. Because theatre and art should be proactive and not just reactive.”
All the Rage runs from 11-13 June and a percentage of ticket sales will be donated to Rape Crisis England & Wales. Tickets go on sale on theatredeli.co.uk on 7 May, when a full list of participating writers and artists will be announced.
Details of Terrifying Women 7: Unredacted are available on boldtheatre.com. All proceeds from the one-night event will go to the domestic and sexual abuse charity Solace Women’s Aid
Photograph by Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images