Four women on the run break into an aban­doned the­atre to shel­ter from a ter­ri­ble storm. The group’s leader, Ben­ny, is the first to notice they’re not alone — there are two oth­ers in the build­ing. It takes the group of women a lit­tle while to dis­cov­er that the ‘oth­ers’ are ghosts but by then it might be too late…

This “col­lab­o­ra­tive pro­duc­tion” comes from an idea and script by direc­tor Emma Maguire and explores dif­fer­ent reac­tions to grief. It’s a crack­ing ghost sto­ry with ele­ments of hilar­i­ty and hor­ror and exis­ten­tial ennui.

The women — Beth Jones, Emii Wil­son, Natal­ie Wil­son, Mon­i­ca Reid — each get a chance to bring for­ward their character’s sto­ry in a short mono­logue. There are sec­tions of dance and some stage vio­lence so their roles are quite phys­i­cal at times. I liked the chem­istry between the dif­fer­ent pair­ings as they aired their griev­ances with each oth­er or stepped in to sup­port. I real­ly enjoyed the snide com­ments between Logan McGre­gor and Tara West­on-Webb in their ghost­ly char­ac­ters.

NB: This show has a con­tent warn­ing for vio­lence and the pro­gramme includes organ­i­sa­tions to go to for help if you’re dis­tressed at the end of it.

Why are we still here  is one of 6 plays in the 6 Degrees Fes­ti­val all “led and cre­at­ed by Mas­ters stu­dents at Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty. The fes­ti­val aims to intro­duce new emerg­ing artists, whilst cel­e­brat­ing a year of work and learn­ing; demon­strat­ing the knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence we have all gained.” Also on as part of the 6 Degrees Fes­ti­val at BATS The­atre:

This week:

Next week:

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