New play brings to life stories of women in refuge
“Tough Love” is a brand-new play commissioned by Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds using lived experience stories from women in refuge.
Written by Danusia Iwaszko and directed by Roger Haines it brings to life the stories of resilience, dreams, and hope-filled ambition of women living in refuge and is being staged this coming Saturday, March 5.
Theatre Royal artistic director Owen Calvert-Lyons is passionate about the message that “Tough Love” delivers.
He said: “’Tough Love’ comes directly out of Theatre Royal’s work supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our community. This powerful new play is part of our work in raising awareness of the need for urgent action to prevent violence against women and girls.”
Set in a women’s refuge in 2022, the character of Victorian comic and original pantomime dame, Dan Leno, hosts an evening of drama and songs as he casts his acerbic eye over the plight of women today.
He asks: “Has anything changed in the hundred years since he trod the boards and is the women’s abuse the tip of an iceberg of society’s historic disregard of women?”
After delivering many writing workshops with women in refuge, playwright Danusia Iwaszko wanted to get the story of the refuge and the women in refuge out to a wider audience.
Danusia has had many plays staged across the UK, Ireland and Australia, was attached writer at the National Theatre in 2007 and is currently writing “Penned Up”, an Arts Council funded play about prisoners.
She won London’s One Person Play Competition, The Modern Mystery Play Competition and her play “Still Life” won the Women and Words Competition in 2018, published by Unthank Books.
“Tough Love” is a script-in-hand rehearsed reading which will be performed by a cast of six professional actors.
The rehearsed reading will be followed by a Q&A session between the audience and the creative team (writer, director, and musical director) giving them a chance to pose questions about the play to their first live audience.