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The Rapist Over Suzannah

29 May - 2 June 1984, Free Theatre, The Arts Centre
7-9 June 1984, Dunedin Tour, Allen Hall
19-21 July 1984, Free Theatre, The Arts Centre, Return season
PRODUCTION CREDITS
The play, written by Stuart McKenzie, a member of the Free Theatre group, explores the subject of rape through a series of mental images which make up the private world of Suzannah, a woman who is raped. Highlights are the grimly stylised rape scene and the brutally realistic police and medical examinations which follow.
The production is structured as a relentless mechanism in which the six actors take on various characters in varying degrees of sylisation. These characters become components of Suzannah's mind - people she has met, situations she has experienced. She is thus a recording machine. When the overt physical act of rape occurs, it is a direct reult of subtler emotional and mental manipulation by a male-dominated society in which role-playing and deceit are the norm.
Members of the group are aware of the sensitive nature of the subject and are adament that their aim is not to make a moral judge,ent or to point the finger at men. They aim to examine the phenomenon of rape within a theatre format. The theatre becomes a laboratory-workshop in which the motivations of people are placed under a microscope.
Mr McKenzie gathered his material directly from the experiences of the cast. Responsibility for direction of the play has been undertaken by the group as a whole.
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Press Release

Press Release
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Reviews

...brief but intense...

​Experiment in cause and effect

​Richard Corballis, NZ Times
​​
The performance is strong and painful. Julia Allen could hardly play the difficult part better than she does.

​Painful view of a rape
John Goulter, The Star
This short, concentrated, avant-garde presentation is one of the best productions to come out of the Free Theatre.... an intelligent, unconventional, well crafted piece of theatre which is much to the credit of both writer and cast.

'Rapist over Suzannah'

​John Farnsworth, The Press
​
...one of the best plays I have seen for a long time.... one of the most intelligent and intelligible treatments of the theme free of any emotional or intellectual extravagance and mercifullly honest.... an appointment with a theatrical event of lasting value.

​Short play rewarding

D.H.E., ​Otago Daily Times, June 8, 1984​
This play, and its production, is full of interest both for what is achieved and what is not.

The Rapist Over Suzannah
​Simon Garrett, NZ 'Act' Magazine, Aug 1984

Articles

Free Theatre tour
publication unspecified

Play about rape
The Press
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  • ABOUT
    • Manifestos and Writings
    • A brief history...
    • Who We Are
    • The University Connection
    • Shirley Horrocks documentary
    • Training and Devising
    • Home, Space and Design
  • HOME
  • WHATS ON
    • The Passionate Puritan
  • EDUCATION
    • Kids Holiday Programmes
    • Schools Workshops
    • Adult workshops
  • PRODUCTIONS 1979 - present
    • The Cat Eleonore
    • The Deadbeat Opera
    • Babylon Berlin
    • Beggars Banquet
    • Woyzeck
    • The Axe
    • Endgame
    • Digitising Performance
    • Erewhon: Over the Range
    • A Summer Night's Dream
    • How Dare You
    • A Winter's Tale
    • Ars Acustica
    • Alice
    • The Black Rider
    • Frankenstein
    • The Mauricio Kagel Project
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • Kafka's Amerika
    • Ubu Nights >
      • Past Ubu Nights >
        • Ma Ubu Night
        • Ubu Through the Looking Glass
        • Ubu in Wonderland Ubu Night
        • Frankenstein Ubu Night
        • Casablanca Ubu Night
        • Faust Ubu Night
        • Not Hamlet Ubu Night
        • Punk Ubu Night
        • The Art of the Deal Ubu Night
        • Crossroads Ubu Night
        • Ubu Shows Us the Way to Brecht's Whiskey Bar
        • The Devil and the Blues Ubu Night
        • Bowie Ubu Night
        • Warhol Ubu Night
        • Berlin Kabarette
        • Beat Ubu Night
        • Twin Peaks Ubu Night
        • David Lynch Ubu Night
        • Kafka Ubu Night
        • Tango Ubu Night
        • Ubu Ubu Night
        • Lovecraft Ubu Night
    • Canterbury Tales
    • The Soldier's Tale
    • Bluebeard's Castle >
      • Bluebeard's Castle credits
    • I Sing the Body Electric
    • Big Heads Protest
    • Hereafter
    • Passion, Pulse and Power
    • The Earthquake in Chile
    • Don Giovanni Invites you to Dinner
    • Doctor Faustus
    • The Marvellous Corricks >
      • Corricks - Credits
    • Distraction Camp
    • Remake
    • Ella and Susn
    • There and Back Again
    • Faust Chroma
    • Enigma Emmy Goering/Nico Sphinx of Ice
    • Change Proposal
    • Faust Feast
    • Diana Down Under
    • Philoctetes >
      • Production Credits - Piloctetes
    • Fantasia
    • Christmas Shopping
    • Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
    • Achternbusch in the Antipodes
    • Caucasian Chalk Circle
    • Samson Airline
    • Antigone
    • Kabarett Kabul
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • The Well Intentioned Wife
    • The Last Days of Mankind
    • Bakkhai / Diotek
    • Krapp's Last Tape
    • Murderer Hope of Women / The Philosopher's Stone
    • Comrade Savage
    • Love on a Bicycle
    • Crusoe: A Lapsarian Mass in Twelve Movements
    • Medea
    • Songs to the Judges
    • Resolution Island
    • Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus
    • The Empire Builders
    • States of Shock
    • Robinson Crusoe or: I That Was Born To Be My Own Destroyer
    • Power
    • MedeaMaterial
    • Salome
    • Electra
    • The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls
    • Hamletmachine
    • Oresteia
    • A Respectable Wedding
    • Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
    • Cloudkiwiland
    • Double Act / Postponeless >
      • double act credits
    • Preversions
    • The Mortal Pleasure of Wander Lust
    • Red Cross & Takeaway
    • Lulu
    • Cowboy Mouth
    • The Meeting >
      • the meeting credits
    • Action / Tongues
    • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
    • A Letter from L
    • Dinosaurs and All the Rubbish / The Hunting of the Snark
    • Free Theatre Christmas Show
    • The Ride Across Lake Constance
    • Electra
    • In Three Minds
    • The Rapist Over Suzannah
    • 1984: The Future Is Now
    • Make-up Ground down / Texts for Decomposition
    • Leonce and Lena
    • Court Case: Free Theatre vs The Arts Centre
    • The Almost Free Theatre Kabernette
    • The Joffongract
    • King Lear
    • Kabarett
    • King Ubu
    • Black Cat Cabaret
    • The Gas Heart/Ox on the Roof/The Mirror Wardrobe One Fine Evening
    • Jazz Cellar Dada / Heavy Metal Cabaret
    • Round Dance
    • Woyzeck
  • Te Puna Toi
    • Past Te Puna Toi Projects
    • Artists in Residence
  • SUPPORT
  • CONTACT
  • CNZ application