Transcending

This one-act play takes a critical look at family relationships within a conventional middle class framework, and draws attention to the inability to communicate effectively. It presents a satirical view of the traditional nuclear family, depicting the adults, usually supposed to command respect and authority, as figures of ridicule. All of them have a distinct, grossly exaggerated psychological deficiency and are unable to offer help and guidance to the girl, whose failure to pass her A-levels is symbolic of a wider incapacity for success. Her final escape from this bourgeois madhouse environment with its sham notions of integrity is – to quote psychologist Carl Jung – “a release from – or transcendence of – a confining pattern of existence”, an act of liberation based on the “realization of the potential of the individual Self”.

Rites

The play is set in a female space: a ladies’ lavatory. In it, come and go women of all ages and from all walks of life. In this private domain, which is no less than a bastion against male dominance and intrusion, the women speak openly about themselves and their relationships with men. The play reveals the cruel absurdity and inhumanity of a world of sexual stereotypes. Even the attempt to break free from them only moves towards further imbalance and a climactic act of destruction.

Cast "Transcending"

Cast "Rites"

Crew