Girls talk about rape

Two girls in a Youtheatre production engage in a verbal duel on issues of culture, sexuality, betrayal, class and race

By Kathryn Greenaway, The GazetteMarch 19, 2009

From: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/theatre/Girls+talk+about+rape/1406152/story.html

Playwright Hannah Moscovitch realized she had to get back into the loop when it came to sex and the teenage girl after Youtheatre artistic director Michel Lefebvre commissioned her to write a play about rape, from a girl’s perspective. Moscovitch had just turned 30 and felt out of touch with teen girls and their attitudes toward sexuality.

As part of Youtheatre’s 40th anniversary season, there is one public performance of Moscovitch’s play In This World, directed by Lefebvre, at Théâtre Calixa-Lavallée tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Youtheatre is dedicated to the production of issue-oriented works by Canadian playwrights and has been touring Ed Roy’s Bang Boy, Bang! – a play about rape from a guy’s perspective – for years. Lefebvre wanted to give the girls a say.

Moscovitch hated her first draft of the play, so Lefebvre suggested she go to the source. She set up interviews with girls from a high school in Dorval and a high school in LaSalle.

“I was worried they would react to me like a teacher and I didn’t want my questions to sound judgmental,” Moscovitch said following a student performance on Monday.

“Luckily, because of the way I look (like a teenager), they opened up to me completely and said the most incredible things.

“The genesis for the (two) characters in the play is based on interviews I did with an alpha female from each of the two schools.”

In This World is relevant and unflinching.

Sharon James plays Neyssa, a curvy black girl with roots in Jamaica and a working-class address in LaSalle. She thinks girls who have sex are sluts.

Hannah Cheesman plays Bijou, a slender blond WASP from Westmount who has had sex with Neyssa’s cousin and is proud of it.

The girls attend the same swank private school (Neyssa’s on scholarship) and play on the same volleyball team.

Their tenuous friendship is threatened when Neyssa goes to a party at Bijou’s mansion and is raped. She tells no one. At school, Neyssa picks a fight with Bijou and punches her.

Cheesman and James vibrated with anger and frustration during Monday afternoon’s performance.

Lefebvre coaxed emotionally acute performances out of both actors, leaving little time for the audience to exhale, but then this is a play for teenagers who are pretty much on hormonal high alert 24/7, so the ferocity fit.

In the detention hall, the girls faced off while sitting on raised metal chairs. Their verbal sparring touched on issues of culture, sexuality, betrayal, class and race. At one point, Bijou stopped just short of using the “N” word.

Teenagers attending Monday’s performance listened carefully – the ultimate compliment – and responded thoughtfully during a question period following the show.

“It’s a risky thing having an ending where a rape is hidden instead of reported,” Moscovitch said.

“But when I interviewed the (girl students), they said it was what they would do. I’m hoping the teachers will talk about what went on and what should be done.”

Moscovitch is Ottawa-raised, Toronto-based and a National Theatre School graduate. Her mainstage play East of Berlin – about the son of a Nazi war criminal coming to terms with his father’s past – is a hit with theatre critics this season.

Youtheatre presents In This World at Théâtre Calixa-Lavallée, 3829 Calixa-Lavallée Ave., tomorrow at 7 p.m. For info, call 514-844-8781.

kgreenaway@thegazette.canwest.com