The latest instalment in HER Productions’ Vignettes features some changes. The venue has moved from Hope Mill to Contact and, more significantly, the plays have a unifying theme: marking the 45th anniversary of the Greater Manchester Rape Crisis (GMRC) centre and being inspired by stories from the centre. As GMRC is a women-led, women-only service, committed to providing a safe space in which survivors can heal, it fits the ethos of HER Productions, which promotes works by local female and non-binary writers.
This is clearly a passion project attracting actors willing to fill out the background rather than take main roles or serve as a chorus of supportive / heckling voices. The evening begins with a short concert by Manchester’s SHE Choir.
The major difference from past Vignettes is director Kate Colgrave Pope using Alex Keelan’s 1978–2023 as a framing device—broken into segments to serve as foreword to each of the short plays—which creates the impression of a cohesive whole rather than a collection of short pieces.
Staged as a management training exercise, 1978–2023 has a surprisingly light, almost sitcom tone, with a completely endearing performance from Joyce Branagh as Sandra who is so over-conscious of her perceived shortcomings, she is unable to recognise the massive positive impact of her achievements. Sandra traces the origins of GMRC from an inspiring article in the magazine Spare Rib to the present day while fretting about politically correct terminology and receiving advice on how to be more assertive from her plain-speaking if not foul-mouthed friend, Mary, who may be so traumatised as to be unable to leave her house or possibly be Sandra’s inner voice.
The plays dig deep into the complexities and confusion around rape. Bhaijaan (Brother) and Burdens by, respectively, Zoe Iqbal and Maz Hedgehog address rape within marriage and same-sex rape / emotional control. Both, however, concentrate on the difficulties facing the survivors in terms of admitting what they have endured (to themselves as much as others) and having to cope with undeserved shame. Despite coming from a family in which her mother was abused, one character is unable to recognise she too is in an abusive relationship, whilst a brother and sister find themselves overwhelmed by the horror of the situation and unable to see how to take any positive action.
The sheer courage needed to ask for help is highlighted in Debbie Oates’s Lifelines. Rape survivor Yvonne (Julie Hesmondhalgh) is determined to put her experience to good use and help others by serving on the GMRC’s telephone lines, but finds herself confronting demons from her own past. In an empathic performance, Hesmondhalgh conveys a baffled anger at the waste caused by Yvonne’s inability to seek help at an earlier stage with a shamed sense of having to first overcome the feeling of being somehow to blame.
As with any labour of love, there is a temptation to over-egg the pudding. After the interval, the plays become less subtle and more didactic, and as the audience is wildly partisan, this feels like preaching to the choir. Lekhani Chirwa’s A Day in the Life Of addresses the impact the stresses which arise from working at the centre have upon the personal lives of workers at GMRC. Director Amy Gavin balances positives and negatives but, with strong emphasis on the coping mechanisms used by workers and the vital support of colleagues, the play feels a bit like a recruitment pitch.
Lindsay Williams’s Broken, on the other hand, is relentlessly critical of the inequities of the justice system, which does not allow rape survivors to describe their experiences to Independent Sexual Violence Advocates and so limits the advice which the latter can offer. The point is well-made, but the sheer number of examples brings a strident tone. Director Ellie Rose creates a nightmarish atmosphere to illustrate the pressures workers endure with a sneaky jazz drumbeat in the background building up a feeling of pursuit.
The current collection of Vignettes continues the high quality of the series while paying tribute to a vital service for the Manchester area.