Open Clasp’s Rattle Snake streaming online

Published: 5 May 2020
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Christina Berriman Dawson and Eilidh Talman Credit: Keith Pattison
Christina Berriman Dawson and Eilidh Talman with BSL interpreter Caroline Ryan
Christina Berriman Dawson Credit: Keith Pattison
Eilidh Talman Credit: Keith Pattison

Open Clasp’s Rattle Snake, a play about coercive control, is to stream with BSL signing as part of Deaf Awareness Week.

Rattle Snake is based on real-life stories of women who have faced and survived coercive controlling domestic abuse and has been used to train 1,500+ front line police officers. It will now be streamed with BSL on 5 and 6 May 2020 on YouTube.

According to research from Women’s Aid / Melissa Mostyn in 2015, deaf women are twice as likely to suffer domestic abuse than their hearing peers. Since the lockdown was introduced, there has been a marked increase in domestic violence, with a rise in the number of calls to the National Domestic Abuse helpline run by Refuge of 49% after the first three weeks. By making Rattle Snake available to watch online with BSL, Open Clasp hopes to help more deaf people to recognise the signs of coercive control.

The play is free to access online, but as part of #GivingTuesdayNow—a new global day of giving in response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19—Open Clasp is welcoming donations which will go towards the work it does to make theatre more accessible. For more information, to find out how to get help, or to watch Rattle Snake online, visit the company’s web site.

Details of how to donate are also given after the YouTube showing.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

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