A powerful and hard-hitting play charting the rape, torture and murder of women during global armed conflicts will be staged for the first time in Derry, Armagh and Belfast in June 2022.
The Shedding of Skin, produced by Belfast-based Kabosh, gives voice to the thousands of women who have suffered abuse in all corners of the world.
The play is written by Armagh playwright Vittoria Cafolla, directed by Kabosh Artistic Director Paula McFetridge and stars an all-female cast, including Derry actress, Catriona McFeely.
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Catriona McFeely spoke to MyDerry about working on this powerful play.
She said: "As a child I was always involved in speech and drama and singing and dancing. When I was leaving school I looked into going to drama school. I went over to London and trained in the Central School Speech and Drama in acting for 3 years.
"I lived and worked in London for a while and then came home in 2018. Love working in the industry here. It's a lovely arts community that we have here."
Catriona said it was important that theatre continued to raise issues such as the impact of war on women.
She said: "It is a story that we don’t hear a lot when it comes to war and conflict. Historically stories about war and conflict seem to focus on men and their role during these times.
"But of course, women were also present during these times and had to take action and suffered through it and had many consequences to deal with that men didn’t.
"I hope that people really listen to and take in the traumatic experiences that are portrayed by the historical women in this play in order to look forward to and move towards a future where women are given the due respect and recognition they deserve.
"I hope it increases people’s awareness of conflicts that went on and continue to go on in other parts of the world they may not know about and the impact of those conflicts on women."
Catriona said that despite the heavy nature of the play, the cast still found it to be an enjoyable experience.
She said: "It has been a real learning curve and experience and been a lot of fun despite some of the topics being quite heavy.
"There are moments of great comedy, dancing and songs. We have an intimacy co-ordinator Paula O’Reilly who ensures that when we are these characters we are not traumatising ourselves.
"Kabosh is a wonderful theatre company and I would encourage people to come and see us and we appreciate any feedback we get from these shows."
The production will be performed at the Playhouse Theatre in Derry on June 3 and 4 at 8:00pm; at the Marketplace Theatre in Armagh on June 8 at 8:00pm and at the Lyric Theatre from June 14-18 at 8:00pm and on June 18 & 19 at 3:00pm.
To book tickets go to https://kabosh.net/production/the-shedding-of-skin/
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