About Manchester checks out Footlights tackling of the issue of Donestic Abuse at the Lowry last night.
Powerful stuff. If you knew nothing of domestic abuse before you went in, you were most certainly aware of it and all its consequences when you came out.
Five actors standing on a bare stage save three plastic seats on each side and a double bed in the centre representing the fact that these are still loving relationships, spent eighty minutes with riveting monologues showing how domestic abuse can transcend all classes and creeds and profoundly effect both male and female.
It was all laid out in full gory detail, the control, the fear, the violence, the lack of professional support, the depression, the helplessness.
The audience are left stunned, speechless, they leave the studio theatre in a cold silence, finding difficulty in comprehending what they have just heard and at the same time wholly enlightened as to the consequence of living within an abusive relationship.
This is the reality, the Boxing Day drinks ending with a missing teeth, metal plates and perforated ear drums, the ruins of a wedding night, the sleeping in a phone box, the kissing and making up, and you leave with the hope, perhaps forlorn that as a society, we should be able to prevent this from happening .
Go and see it
