‘I told my mum I was going on an R.E trip. . .’ was a theatre piece that explored the experiences of abortion through a series of stories from real women.
The show consisted of four amazing females. They had MP3s with earphones attached to their ears. As they were performing, the voices of women (whom they had interviewed particularly for this show) passing through their ears. They listened to the voices through the earphones and repeated the stories with the same emotion and tone. The most remarkable thing about this show was the fact that they did not memorise the lines. They put on accents and laughed to exactly replicate the women.
Before we watched the show, we attempted to try this new type of acting (Verbatim) that none of us had ever seen before. We were all paired up and asked one another a question. A question that I had asked to my partner was, what is your happiest memory? I recorded her speech on the MP3 and then I tried repeating her words by using the same tone, laughing when she did, pausing when she stopped. I have to admit, it was really hard, and the most difficult part was when you accidentally messed up, as it was hard to pick up the speech again. So, seeing those women play live like that was tremendous. Certainly, they had plenty of practise, but it was still really amazing.
Personally, I had never considered the experiences of abortion. Being a Muslim, it’s something that is forbidden, (although there are exceptions) so I never thought about it. However, at the show one of the interviews were from a Muslim girl who had gone through abortion. This opened my eyes to the reality of abortion and how common it is. At least 1/3women have an abortion.
Also, during the show the opinions of males were regarded. Again, it was a real person who had voiced his opinions. The girl had acted extremely well as a boy, by deepening her voice. It was clear to us that it was a male’s opinion. It gave us a moment to consider whether boys have a say in abortion. What do you think? As you can tell, the show had shown a variety of different views.
The show was really upbeat and funny as they used music and said jokes. Although, the matter can be quite sensitive, they showed us how abortion can be dealt with.
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Written by Shaziya Begum