“Audi­ence mem­bers will be seat­ed close enough to touch the per­form­ers and view­ers will be encour­aged to think about the ways they look at women’s bod­ies — both on film and in the flesh.”

No, that’s not the press release from Welling­ton Fash­ion Week. Instead, it’s Lucrece: An Adap­ta­tion of Shakespeare’s the Rape of Lucrece, the newest show from Binge Cul­ture Col­lec­tive. After the jump, you can read the whole press release, which includes 25 naked women but here’s the TL:DR -

Lucrece: An Adap­ta­tion of Shakespeare’s the Rape of Lucrece
Toi Poneke Gallery, 61 Abel Smith Street.
Exhi­bi­tion: Fri­day 20 April — Sat­ur­day 12 May 2012, 10am-8pm week­days, 10am — 4pm week­ends
Live Per­for­mances: Thurs­day and Fri­day evenings, 19, 20, 26, 27 April; 3, 4 10, 11 May, 6:30pm
Entry by koha. Book­ings: bookforlucrece@gmail.com

Theatre Women Go All Out Against Rape

Sex­u­al vio­lence will be at the fore­front of Welling­to­ni­ans’ minds this month with the Welling­ton Rape Cri­sis Annu­al Street Appeal on the 13th of April, and the­atre mak­ers Iso­bel MacK­in­non, Ally Gar­rett and Fiona McNa­ma­ra have a busy few weeks ahead of them.

The three women are putting on two art projects about rape in the month of April. As well as par­tic­i­pat­ing in a fundrais­er per­for­mance of A Mem­o­ry, A Mono­logue, A Rant and A Prayer, edit­ed by Eve Ensler of Vagi­na Mono­logues fame, as part of the Inter­na­tion­al V‑Day move­ment to stop vio­lence against women and girls, the group will also tack­le a per­for­mance instal­la­tion exhi­bi­tion at Toi Poneke Gallery, inspired by Shakespeare’s poem The Rape of Lucrece.

So far there hasn’t been a dull moment for the trio, who has been flat out film­ing video footage for the instal­la­tion Lucrece: An Adap­ta­tion of Shakespeare’s the Rape of Lucrece. Already, film­ing has includ­ed actor Iso­bel MacK­in­non bak­ing her first ever cake on cam­era, as well as one infa­mous Sat­ur­day in Karori where 25 anony­mous women gath­ered to be filmed com­plete­ly nude. Work­ing on the exhi­bi­tion is a labour of love for MacK­in­non, Gar­rett and McNa­ma­ra who believe the poem is just as rel­e­vant today as when it was writ­ten in 1594.

“I was struck by Shakespeare’s under­stand­ing of Lucrece, as a rape sur­vivor” says McNa­ma­ra. “His­tor­i­cal­ly, women have not been rep­re­sent­ed on their own terms onstage, but in this poem Lucrece has a strong voice and I want­ed to show that by empha­sis­ing that this is her sto­ry.” Women’s sto­ries are a pas­sion for both McNa­ma­ra and Gar­rett, reunit­ed after col­lab­o­rat­ing on the sell out all female devised show, MINGE, at BATS The­atre in 2010. In this pro­duc­tion the focus will be on Lucrece, and her rape will be explored through audio visu­al instal­la­tion and live per­for­mance. Audi­ence mem­bers will be seat­ed close enough to touch the two per­form­ers and view­ers will be encour­aged to think about the ways they look at women’s bod­ies — both on film and in the flesh.

Lucrece is pro­duced by mul­ti-award win­ning the­atre com­pa­ny, Binge Cul­ture Col­lec­tive. Already noto­ri­ous risk tak­ers, their pre­vi­ous work had already been described as “more a per­for­mance art instal­la­tion than a play” (The­atre­view) and this inno­v­a­tive piece moves the col­lec­tive into a gallery space for the first time. It rep­re­sents a new direc­tion for the com­pa­ny, known for their image-based devised per­for­mances.