THE DEFAMATION
Photo by Evan Hobson
Itchy Feet Theatre's run ofThe Defamation by Jen Tucker at Applecart Arts in East London has now finished. Thank you to all who came and supported! Please leave us a review using the button below.
Inspired by the events of the Depp v Heard trial, The Defamation by Jen Tucker visualises an afterlife where a woman’s fate is debated and decided by tribunal. But something is rotten in this court. When Charity, loosely based on Amber Heard, arrives in the afterlife, she meets several of Shakespeare’s heroines who are also doomed to await trial, and patterns begin to emerge. As the women prepare Charity for court, they discover that their stories are not so different.
Written in blank verse, the play aligns the 16th and 21st century, plucking Shakespeare’s women from their original plays and placing them on one stage. As present and past interact, the play exposes the treatment of women in the legal sphere throughout history, investigating good and evil, as well as the nuanced spaces between.
Trapped within a rigid binary of innocence and guilt, virtue and sin, the women of The Defamation interrogate what it means to be a woman scrutinised in the public eye and explore the complex landscape of modern celebrity culture.
AUDIENCE REVIEWS
Read what our audience members had to say about The Defamation by Jen Tucker...
Script, direction and acting of the highest order; remarkable!
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Spellbinding performances with clever script.
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An excellently written play which brings to life Shakespeare's heroines in a way which feels preseNt and relevant to our times. It humanises them by allowing them to tell their own stories, chipping away at the binary of victim/villain.
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A really innovative and clever concept - both representing our times and timeless. Loved all of the Shakespeare’s women - but particularly Lady Macbeth - striking a balance of humour, innocence and steel. An cosy, atmospheric setting lulled us into their world blurring the lines between history, fantasy and our real current world. All In perfectly controlled blank verse. Both interesting and entertaining!
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Well written, amusing, confident performances.
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A raw homage to sisterhood.
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Witty, moving, thought-provoking!
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Such a powerful performance reclaiming the female stories so often left out of the narrative.