Unwoman is song.
Unwoman is a crime.
Unwoman is a real and substantial risk.
UNWOMAN is an epic and imagistic piece of feminist theatre created in both Ireland and Australia, examining reproductive rights, experiences of pregnancy and bodily autonomy.
Made with THE RABBLE, professional performers and a community ensemble of pregnant performers, UNWOMAN is an invocation of the pregnant body as a plurality of experiences. It is visceral, carnal and an uncompromising piece of feminist theatre horrified by the history and laws attempting to curb bodily autonomy and reproductive rights.
Co-created and Co-directed by / Kate Davis and Emma Valente
Part III Co-created with / Maeve Stone
Set and Costume Design / Kate Davis
Lighting Design / Emma Valente
Composition & Sound Design / Emma Valente
Additional Sound Design Part III / Maeve Stone
Creative Producer / Josh Wright
Production Manager / Rebecca Etchell
Stage Manager / Cassandra Fumi
Assistant Stage Manager / Sophie Ashkanasy
Lighting Programmer / Emma Lockhart-Wilson
Costume Supervisors / Amanda Hitten & Jemima Johnston
Set & Costume Construction / Amanda Hitten, Georgette Crump, Carmody Nicol, Emily Crosato, Rohanna Hadlow, Jemima Johnston
Scenic Construction / Hahnie Goldfinch
Childcare / Felicity Hunter
Child Performer Supervisor & Assistant Stage Manager / Tove Due
Make Up & Costume Intern / Georgette Crump
THE RABBLE Interns / Emma Lockhart-Wilson & Sofie Burgoyne
Photography/ Hero image by Patricio Cassinoni. UNWOMAN 2018 production photography by David Patterson. UNWOMAN 2019 production photography by Pier Carthew.
PERFORMED BY
Part I / Annalise Matthews, Toni Main, Robyn McMicking, Anna Nottle and Mattie Young.
Part II / Dana Miltins and Mary Helen Sassman
Part III / Yumi Umiumare
Testimonials / Read by Mila Jennings
IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTERS
Ade Suharto and Kelly Alexander contributed to the ensemble’s work in Part I.
Olwen Fouéré performed in UNWOMAN Part III, Dublin Fringe, November 2018.
>> TESTIMONIALS
As part of UNWOMAN, THE RABBLE are also collecting short testimonies from people who would like to share a brief account of their reproductive history.
This testimony will be read out as part of the UNWOMAN production and aims to demonstrate the diversity of experience, values and attitudes around fertility, pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, birthing and parenting.
During each performance of UNWOMAN different testimonies will be read verbatim.
★★★★★
Unwoman is a bold, exquisitely crafted work from a company at the height of its powers. Emma Valente and Kate Davis are geniuses. They’ve fused design and three styles of performance with sublime creative intelligence, weaving an interrogation of received ideas about women’s reproduction – set against the lived experience of it – into an unforgettable masterpiece.
— Cameron Woodhead, The Age
Unwoman is an extraordinary work. It’s gruelling, no question; but also beautiful, funny, scorchingly truthful, and meticulously and rigorously rendered. Nobody else makes theatre like this. If the possibilities of theatre interest you at all, you’d be mad be miss it.
— Alison Croggon, Witness Performance
★★★★★
Perverse, real, harrowing and deeply affecting, this is a universal, unforgettable masterpiece of performance art.
— The Times (UK)
Project History
UNWOMAN Part III was co created with Maeve Stone in Dublin 2018.
UNWOMAN premiered in and was presented by Dublin Fringe Festival, 8 – 16 September, 2018 | Samuel Beckett Theatre | Dublin, Ireland
UNWOMAN is presented by THE RABBLE and The SUBSTATION as part of Due West. This project has been supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts. Unwoman Part III (2018) was co-created with Maeve Stone and performed by Olwen Fouere with commissioning support from Dublin Fringe Festival, developed through FRINGE LAB and produced with support from Pan Pan Theatre (Ireland).