Feminine Rage, The Courtyard Theatre
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We spoke to co-directors Venice Billia and Siana Richmond, and cast members Lizzy Lindsay and Christina Leitne about their show Feminine Rage which gives victims a voice from the afterlife. Feminine Rage is at The Courtyard Theatre from 14 – 16 August, more information and tickets available here.
What can audiences expect from the show?
They should expect a real mixed bag. Obviously the source material of the show is a very dark side of current affairs, but at its core, the show is about what women can do when you put them together. There’s a lot of humour and fun moments of simply girls being girls, whilst also featuring a range of heartfelt stories and a thought-provoking perspective on domestic abuse. Ultimately, it’s a show about sisterhood and the power female friendship holds even when the fuel of it is something as tragic as femicide.
Is Camden Fringe going to be the show’s first time on stage, or have you already performed elsewhere?
The full play has never been performed before. Short snippets of it have been shown in scratch night spaces in and around London, but the full play will be performed at the Courtyard Theatre this August for the first time ever!
What was your inspiration behind the show?
Honestly, calling it inspiration feels exploitative. It’s more of a drive to tell these stories to an audience that isn’t aware of them. I was still living in Greece when the femicide spike was taking place, and it was a truly dark time. It reached a point where I would come across a new case every other week, knowing everything about the victim’s life, how they were killed, along with every single person’s opinion about how their abusers should have handled the case to save themselves prison time.
The lightbulb moment for me happened when I was looking through news about one of the victims I eventually wrote about, and I saw a picture of her husband (before it was revealed that he was her murderer), in her funeral, comforting her mother. That’s when the question popped into my head: What would that woman say if she saw him from the afterlife? And by extension amongst the chaos and the grief over women I didn’t even know, I had an obscure thought: What if these victims are together right now, in some part of the afterlife designed just for them? And this is how the story was born.
One thing I can definitely call inspiration, however, was the awakening of the feminist movement in Greece in response to that, the people that came together in protest against domestic abuse and crimes against women. Songs and poems were written for the victims, people marched on the streets with slogans like “my sister, I believe you”, and in the midst of this ongoing war against women, I saw that the only hope for a change lies in community. That’s what Feminine Rage represents.
How long have you been working on the play?
It’s coming up to two years. I started working on it in the summer of 2023, but for the longest time it was just a 20-minute scratch piece. I kept workshopping ideas on how to develop it further, but it didn’t evolve into a full play until the beginning of this year.
Is this version how you originally envisioned it or has it changed drastically since you first put pen to paper?
It definitely has changed in that it really has been brought to life. I envisioned it as more of a statement piece, which it still is, but ultimately, I needed the right story to convey that statement in. It was a case of really getting to know my characters beyond their tragic backstories and give them the space they needed to shine, to be real people instead of just symbols. This is also where the theme of sisterhood really came through, even if that was the central theme all along. It was a journey of exploration.
What was it that drew you to this show and role?
Christina Leitner (as No. 1): I feel like that very rarely in stories do women get to experience the emotion of rage. A lot of the time they’re either crying or suffering in silence and there isn’t really any space for women to be raging, mad, angry or messy and to be part of a story where they get to be that feels really empowering. The play is based on and deals with very serious and relevant issues and it’s a real privilege to use our voices in this way in honour of all the women who can’t anymore. I feel very connected to my character as she pours everything she’s got into creating a more beautiful place for her sisters because the real world wasn’t, in the hope that it can inspire that change in the real world too, not just their afterlife.
How challenging has this role been for you?
Lizzie Lindsay (as No. 47 ): This role has really worked my understanding the tragic heroine. As 47, she first appears as an archetype victim. However, with further development and discussion, I began to challenge the archetype she perceives, and delved deeper into the incredible writing of Venice, who writes 47 to be a thoughtful subversion of the female victim stereotype. Playing 47 is a huge privilege, and it is also extremely provocative. The role asks me to really consider the tragic and multifaceted lives that Feminine Rage depicts.
What brought you all together?
Most of us went to the same university and had separate links to each other through different theatre events that were happening there. When Venice decided to put on this show to Camden Fringe, she reached out to us individually and that way, the team was put together. We are all passionate about feminism and showing women’s stories that are hardly reported, and getting together in the name of those who are not with us anymore was a very fortunate coincidence. It’s wonderful that we’ve managed to create this sisterhood through working together on this project.
If you had to describe your show as a meal what would it be?
It would definitely be a dessert. The most fitting one is probably crème brulèe, as it’s a performative dessert in itself. There is something tragic about the fact that it needs to be burned in order to be ready for consumption and that burning gives it a sharp exterior that hides a soft and tender core, and we feel like this describe the female experience in a very poignant way. It’s sweet, but also sharp and textured, just like the nature of our play.
If your show had a soundtrack what songs would definitely be on it?
This is a very exciting question, as we’re huge on soundtracks and music is a big part of developing the play. We have an entire 6 hour long show playlist so there’s many songs to choose from, but our top ones are the following:
- Labour (cacophony) by Paris Paloma – This is our generation’s feminist anthem, so it definitely wouldn’t be missing from our list, plus the cacophony version gives it a different layer of female solidarity which is what our show is all about.
- You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore – This is more of a timeless one, and it was also featured on the film “First Wives Club”, which was a huge inspiration for our show.
- Fast As You Can by Fiona Apple – It’s a very unique song that describes the power imbalance that women experience in relationships, and the way they are forced to be put in an asphyxiating mold created by the male gaze.
- Man’s world by MARINA – Another contemporary feminist song that expresses rage in a very poignant way.
- Ordinary Girl from Hannah Montana – Need we say more?
What’s the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received during your career, and how has it influenced your work on this show?
Venice: There are two main pieces of advice that have stuck with me. The first one is ”If you’re mad enough you will make it”. This was said to me by my mentor when I first started out with this project, and it’s a good reminder that getting our work together as creatives is possible, no matter how challenging the industry is at the moment. It also is a drive to be flexible in the way I work, and to be open to solutions that may initially sound strange or unconventional.
The second piece of advice that I still keep is “failure is the mother of success”. This wasn’t given to me in a theatrical space – it was said to me by my coach when I was playing volleyball in my teens. It’s one of my favourites because at a time when I was very preoccupied with doing everything perfectly and making no mistakes, and it’s very refreshing to know that failure is not only allowed, but essential, and that success will follow.
Siana: Not really advice, but I used to get a lot of criticism when I was at uni. As much as it was disheartening, it showed me that rejection is redirection, and it taught me to detect meaningful advice and to not be disappointed, because the no’s I receive in my career will eventually lead me to a meaningful yes.
Thanks to Venice, Siana, Lizzy and Christina for telling us about their show. Don’t miss Feminine Rage at The Courtyard Theatre from Thursday 14 to Saturday 16 August.
