Please note – all shows are now sold out
See this page for reviews, pics, info on our cast and history of the play and trial.
Some fabulous photos from the play by the renowned photographer Simon Annand:
REVIEWS:
Review 31: Because she was a prostitute – review by Frith Taylor
. . . The trial unfolds in what feels like real time; witnesses are examined and cross-examined, and we wait for the final verdict. Courtroom dramas are meant to be pacey and exciting, and resolve in a satisfying distribution of justice. But this play does things differently. We watch Patricia Whitfield and Elizabeth Harris in the stand answering questions, sometimes nervously, sometimes fiercely, trying to get the details right. When they are asked to describe the assault itself, the attacks are enacted as flashbacks. This interruption in generic convention results in scenes of almost unbearable tension. These parts are intensified by the play’s immersive staging.
Good Sex Bad Sex, Nov 6 podcast by MetroUK features No Bad Women – Rape on Trial
Lisa Longstaff from Women Against Rape talks to Bibi Lynch and Miranda Kane about the play. Listen: http://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/good-sex-bad-sex/rape-on-trial-7djpDqitOhX/
INTERVIEW-Sex workers denied justice over rapes, says UK prostitutes’ collective
by Sonia Elks | @SoniaElks | Thomson Reuters Foundation 5 November 2019 12:33 GMT
LONDON, Nov 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Police and prosecutors are becoming less willing to take action over rapes reported by sex workers, the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) said as a play highlighted their work to bring England’s first private rape prosecution.
Nearly 25 years on from the landmark 1995 trial, sex workers still struggle to obtain justice over rape and other attacks at work as they face scepticism from officials and fear of being prosecuted themselves, said ECP member Niki Adams.
“At some point it seemed that things were improving,” Adams told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Now feels that it is going backwards.”
The ECP estimates about two-thirds of sex workers have suffered some kind of violence.
Read full article http://news.trust.org/item/20191105120530-v6kp7/
Radio AVA podcast:
Interviews with Director Lesley Delmenico and Producer Lisa Longstaff, and excerpts from the play in rehearsal. Listen https://www.mixcloud.com/avaradio/oct-2019-p1-film-hustlers-twitter-clarsypatron-rant-online-escoring-sites-play-no-bad-women/ TC: 51:11- 1:23:05
Camden New Journal review by Clair Chapwell, 7 Nov 2019
Diva Review by Jane Fae
Vice Magazine by @emmaggarland – The Legal System Failed Two Sex Workers – So They Took Their Rapist to Court
Lisa Longstaff of WAR referred to the context at the time of its Dossier of 15 other cases that should have been prosecuted, adding: “None of them were sex workers, but they were all women who didn’t have a high social status or were related to the attacker,” she explains. “Women who were under 16, women who were married to or partnered with their attacker, women of colour and women with insecure immigration status. You could just see there was prejudice against them, and the woman weren’t backed against the man who, in most cases, had a higher social status.”
Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes said: “Sex workers are usually only ever portrayed as poor victims, in order to justify the move to increase criminalisation in the name of saving us from ourselves and from violence, and this is a direct counter to that,” she says. “This is not two victims, this is two women who were victimised and who took their rapist to court – but it’s not a ‘happy hooker’ story either. It’s a real reflection of the reality of who goes into sex work, why, what happens to us, and how we struggle against those injustices.”
Read full article https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/ne8md8/sex-workers-first-private-prosecution-rape-uk
Bridget Galton’s preview, first two pages of Et Cetera arts section in The Hampstead & Highgate Express 31 Oct
A brief history of the play and the precedent legal case
Sold-out pilot shows in 2015 had great reviews: “Challenging . . . uncompromising, everything theatre should be.” Tribune
A rape trial which makes legal history. It’s 1995. Two sex workers have been raped separately at knifepoint while visiting a client’s house in suburbia. One is a mum, a tattooed biker and former teacher; the other writes porn to support a disabled husband.
They report the attacks. Despite continuing threats, the Crown Prosecution Service closes the case claiming ‘insufficient evidence’ – sex workers won’t be believed by a jury.
Outraged but scared, the women come to the English Collective of Prostitutes and Women Against Rape. The groups assemble a legal team to take on the rapist and prevent him attacking other women.
This was the first ever private prosecution for rape in England and Wales. The play is a dramatisation of this bold and imaginative fight for justice, drawn from the trial transcript. But can women who do sex work win?
At Clean Break, 2 Patshull Rd, London NW5 2LB 7.30pm 1-14 Nov 2019.
Please donate to crowdfunding appeal: https://www.gofundme.com/f/no-bad-women
Cast (alphabetical order)
Duncan Hess – His Honour Judge Carson
Maria Lovelady – Patricia Whitfield
Erina Mashate – Police officer/Clerk/Jury Foreman
Stephanie Noblet – Elizabeth Harris
Christopher Poke – Mr Alloway
Jacob Trenerry – Stephen Donaldson, aka Terry
Toby Trimby – Jack Whitfield
Michael Tuffnell – Mr Murphy
Peter York – Paul Harris
Tweet by Sue Odell, casting director:
“Saw ‘No Bad Women’ @CleanBrk, Lesley Delmenico’s important & excellent dramatisation of an iconic 1992 rape trial produced by Lisa Longstaff @AgainstRape. Shout out to superb actors @MariaLovelady & Stephanie Noblet. Book tickets: http://nobadwomen.brownpapertickets.com @ProstitutesColl”
The Production Team
Lesley Delmenico – Writer/Director
Lisa Longstaff – Producer
Darius Gervinskas – Stage Manager
Arvid Zollinger – Lighting designer/operator