(Rana Moussaoui’s article appeared on Barron’s, 7/12; via Drudge Report; Pictures by Clement Mahoudeau.)
Brazilian performer Carolina Bianchi was herself raped after being drugged on a night out
A play about sexual violence against women, in which its author takes a “date rape” drug live on stage, has shocked Europe’s biggest theatre festival.
Brazilian performer Carolina Bianchi — who was herself raped after being drugged on a night out — wrote “The Bride and Good Night Cinderella” describing the “journey into hell” that so many women are put through.
Some people have walked out of the performance at the Avignon Festival in France, which its creator admitted is shocking, with the organisers warning that it could disturb.
Bianchi told AFP that she decided to tackle the issue head-on because it “happened to me. I was the victim of a rape 10 years ago. I stayed silent because it happened after a ‘rape drink'” which had been spiked to muddle her memory.
“So I cannot access what happened. You want to know what happened and at the same time you cannot access that memory. So you start to construct. You start to use your imagination. And then everything starts to connect.”
But Blanchi insisted that “I’m not doing this because I need catharsis. I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in being cured because what happened will never disappear.”
The play, which is set to tour Europe, ends with what appears to be a live gynaecological examination of the by-then drugged and sleeping Bianchi, on the bonnet of a car that is projected onto a screen.
Earlier, as she took the “date rape” drug popularly known as “Goodnight Cinderella”, she told the audience that “you may perhaps be disturbed”.
As Bianchi slowly falls asleep from the controlled mix of tranquillisers — with doctors standing by offstage — other performers emerge and a mass grave full of skeletons is revealed while the stories of murdered women appear on screen.
“I don’t ask the audience to feel the emotion (the victim is going through) but to sit and listen to these stories of sexual violence,” she said.
