He’s dead, and it’s her job to prepare and present his body for his family’s final goodbye. She often imagines what each person’s life was like. But today she doesn’t have to imagine who he is. She knows this man.
Faced with the body of the man who raped her eleven months ago, When We Died is a striking new play about one woman’s choice to confront her trauma and tell her story, on her terms. When We Died highlights the pivotal themes of male violence against women and lasting trauma in this raw and moving one-woman show; themes which remain prominent within our public conscious. Despite a drive from various organisations and charities to better educate men and boys on how to speak against and discourage inciting violence against women, the statistics are showing few signs of slowing. This production reflects the lasting trauma that rests within these themes and presents an intimate portrayal of the reality of a survivor’s story.
Writer and performer Alexandra Donnachie says, “I’m incredibly proud of the play and thrilled to be taking When We Died out on the road and to be performing it again, but I feel incredibly conflicted between being thrilled it is still relevant for the sake of getting to perform it again, but also mortified that its story hasn’t yet become dated. I hadn’t heard the names Sarah Everard or Zara Aleena when I began to write When We Died and I hate that I now know them for all the wrong reasons. Violence against women isn’t stopping, or apparently even showing signs of slowing down, and if our play can help raise awareness of this, and have a part in educating those among us about the importance of calling out what can often start as ‘jokes’ and ‘banter’, but can soon turn sinister, then I’ll gladly keep performing it until it’s considered unnecessary.”
