Scandalous misrepresentation
When you cure me
by Jack Thorne
at Bush Theatre, Shepherd's Bush until 17 December
Tickets £9.5-14
I fucking love theatre. I love the way it talks about stuff that needs to be fucking talked about when nobody else has the guts. You could say it merely preaches to the converted: self-selecting concerned liberals who like to think they're better than everyone else because their Thursday night entertainment really makes a difference. Or maybe it quietly sows seeds of change. It's a bit hard to prove either way so I'll just shut up and review.
Played entirely in a 16-year-old girl's bedroom, when you cure me opens with Rachel, covered in cuts and bruises and paralysed from the waist down, being helped by her boyfriend to take a pee in a bedpan. We quickly find out that Rachel's been raped. It's one of those boring stranger-danger dark-alley stories, but used to good effect to talk seriously about consent, healing and negotiating relationships where one or both parties has suffered brutality. It's vital and uncomfortable but uplifting and real. The two leads (Morven Christie and Samuel Barnett) are stellar.
And I like that the promo misrepresents the play entirely, because I'd never have gone if I'd known what it was really about. I suppose that means you're not going to. Well, be an unpredictable market and do it anyway.
by Jack Thorne
at Bush Theatre, Shepherd's Bush until 17 December
Tickets £9.5-14
I fucking love theatre. I love the way it talks about stuff that needs to be fucking talked about when nobody else has the guts. You could say it merely preaches to the converted: self-selecting concerned liberals who like to think they're better than everyone else because their Thursday night entertainment really makes a difference. Or maybe it quietly sows seeds of change. It's a bit hard to prove either way so I'll just shut up and review.
Played entirely in a 16-year-old girl's bedroom, when you cure me opens with Rachel, covered in cuts and bruises and paralysed from the waist down, being helped by her boyfriend to take a pee in a bedpan. We quickly find out that Rachel's been raped. It's one of those boring stranger-danger dark-alley stories, but used to good effect to talk seriously about consent, healing and negotiating relationships where one or both parties has suffered brutality. It's vital and uncomfortable but uplifting and real. The two leads (Morven Christie and Samuel Barnett) are stellar.
And I like that the promo misrepresents the play entirely, because I'd never have gone if I'd known what it was really about. I suppose that means you're not going to. Well, be an unpredictable market and do it anyway.