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Scene 1: ‘Thousand eyes’ by FKA Twigs

[Donna enters. The stage is dark. A spotlight appears center stage. We see Donna slowly walk into the spotlight. She looks upwards.]

Donna: Can you hear me?

I’m sorry.

I did not want you. But you weren’t mine to want. You weren’t real. Can you hear me? I still love you.

Donna’s eye line begins to move center. She is looking at the audience.

Donna: You. You tore me apart. You said you would take care of us.

LIES!

You strip us of everything we are. You tear down my House of Ribbons. Now, the streets are where I lay my head. The streets that are destined by your hands. Your possession. I couldn’t keep it. That was MY decision. A decision that belongs to me. To my home. Not you. Yet, you take it anyway. You use your laws to break mine. Claiming it as your own. Your leadership. A badge given untruly. Let me bleed here. Un-aliving my body.

How could you kill your unborn child? They say.

But how could I live knowing I brought a child into this world unable to give it warmth or shelter or food?

How dare you!

If I could go back to a time before I fell down. When I had the world gently wrapped around me.

Scene 2:

Music changes. Lights change- dramatic light switch to a warm courtroom lighting. We see the court room. 4 chorus members emerge from the audience. (Possible movement piece)

Law: All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention. We are here today to overlook and finalise a decision regarding the fate of Miss Donna. She is on trial today pleading her innocence for having an… abortion.

[all of the ‘red’ side gasps]

[placard with ‘abortion’ is shown]

. You may now all sit.

[everyone sits] [Gossiping amounts themselves quietly]

She lives in her decaying walls.

Family: Depressed from it all.

Priest: Can I ask why, my lord?

Law: The new, improved laws.

All: to audience Haven’t you heard?

Law: We own you [smug]

Society slaps Law’s arms

Law: What? Lightly laughs. Do you deny that in these modern times the new, fantastic  laws allow our claims against this estate. Gestus to Donna.

Priest: Not that there is much to claim.

Silence, the chorus look at each other. The red chorus burst into laughter. The blue chorus looking at each other in disapproval. One collects the case file on Donna.

Society: Donna is a kind girl.

The chorus all pointed to Donna. A ting sound is heard. Family takes the case file.

Family: She’s youthful.

Priest takes the case file.

Priest: You took an innocence child’s soul. As if it was nothing.

Donna: no no! That’s not the case, you have to understand. Please.

Law grabs the case file.

Law: Donna is constantly crying in her spare time. Ugh! Gives file to another chorus member.

Society takes the case file.

Society: she’s just a child herself- she couldn’t care for it. Holds case file to chest.

Blue chorus look at each other, nodding.

The red chorus slowly look at each other.

Law: she doesn’t deserve a choice. She is just the body that grows the child. Law and Priest burst into laughter.

Society: Give me that! Society attempts and fails to take the file. Law is holding it above them. She’s lost

Family: She’s alone

Blue chorus: she’s been through enough

Family managed to grab the file

Scene 3:

Lights begin to change – a red hue/tint is added to existing lighting (this is subtle). Chorus take Donna to center of blocks.

Donna: What? No! Get off me! No, HELP me! To audience Please! Please, don’t do this. It wasn’t even a child yet.

[the reds take a piece of Donna’s house from her- costume]

She stands. The chorus chattered.

Law: Order! Order! Order in this “court room”

Chatter begins to stop.

Priest: We are here for trial of this criminal...

Law and Priest stand together.

Red chorus: Donna

Society: Let the opening statements begin.

The Priest steps forward.

Priest: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Gensis 9:6) Gentlemen and females of the audience. Have you ever felt lost? Alone? Felt there was no light to guide you? I have. I fell under the influence of the red ruler of the underworld. Luring me with desires and bribes. And I’ll admit to you, audience, I fell for it. “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and you descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19) The Lord came to me. He revealed himself to me. The light. He freed me. God gave us the world. He gifted the world with us. God gave us life. Starting at conception. Voice raised directed at Donna. “For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139: 13-15). You betrayed him. Close to Donna. The MAN who created us. Gave you life. Gave you the gift of life and you just take it away. “Thou shall not murder” (Exodus 20:15). People here in this ‘Court room’ let me leave you with this. If God is all loving and all knowing, the Almighty, who helps guide us through our journey and spread love and his message around to everyone in the whole world. Including you. To audience. The man who gave us Jesus Christ, his son. He is the gift giver. Life is a gift entrusted us by God. And SHE, points to Donna, destroyed that. “Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God (Ecclesiastes 11:5). Pause

The Priest steps backwards. Look at the blue chorus.

Priest: And she should be punished

The chorus erupts into chatter.

Society steps forwards.

Society: Audience, these are modern times. Women aren’t just used for baring children or to make you a sandwich when you are too lazy take make it yourself. Points at Law.

Law rolls eyes.

Society: We have a history to back up just how powerful us women are. Fighting for the right in this sexist battle. And the women like Emiline Pankhurst didn’t die for our rights just so a bunch of deluded posh twats with money trying to decide what is done with MY BODY.

Chorus chatter.

Society: How would you like it if I tried to tell you when you could or couldn’t pee? I bet your bladder wouldn’t be very happy. Points to bladder. We seem to be going back in time. And I’ll be damned, hits hand, if I let a toupee wearing satsuma dictate that.

Pause. Family steps forward.

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Family: Donna is young. She should have a right to her life ahead of her. She deserves the choice. I have lived through, and seen women die from having no choice. For having no procedures free to end the suffering. Lives dictated by circumstances out of their control. I am not so naive as to ignore the complexity of what Donna went through but let me be clear: there is nothing simple about forcing someone to continue a pregnancy they are not prepared for, physically or emotionally. This is not-just about Donna. This is about every woman out there. Any woman who finds themselves in the same position. If you take the right way to choose you take away the very essence of what is meant to be free. A woman’s health, her safety, her future- these are not things you play with for the sake of ideology or tradition. You cannot tell me that a law, a religion, or any other group of people has the moral authority to decide what someone does with their body. You cannot take away Donna’s right to control her destiny. Donna made her choice, and I support her. It is her life, and we cannot stand by while others try to erase her rights.

Society steps forward.

Society: I agree. Places hand on Family’s shoulder

Law: woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. Let's just everybody calm down, eh? Look around. Hm, right? Now, audience of this ‘court room’ as you can see there are measures that need to be taking. This is a serious issue that need to be addressed. Don’t you agree? To audience. Looks over to blue chorus.

Blue chorus: Wow, yes finally.

Law pauses. Stares. Chuckles to self.

Law: Mmm.. Slowly walks to audience. Well, I’m glad you agree. There is clearly an issue with female exaggeration and hysteria here!

Blue chorus whip their heads round to Law.

Blue chorus: You what?

Law: You just can’t handle the fact that we have more power over you than you do. But that’s just how the world works I’m afraid. Moves towards Donna. You’re right, Donna. You do put your trust in us. So why would we do anything to damage that? We only want the best for your wellbeing. Gestus towards audience. All chorus turn their heads to audience. They all look at Donna. We write the law. We change the law. We are the law.  Approaches Donna. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Stares at Donna. Your body. MY choice.

Lighting changes – red tint is enhanced

They stared at each other. Donna closes her eyes and takes a breath.

Donna:

This house of ribbon is where stories are woven, where memories are tied in silk and knotted, where each life begins. Like the veins down my arms and the bones on my spine. For everyone is made up of these ribbons. You can tear me down brick by brick but from the dust of my ruins I will grow again. Like an infectious weed I will come back. Again, and again; each time more rooted.

I am your mother, your daughter, your wife and your home. I am the earth that cradles you, the fire that ignites you, and the air that fills your lungs. I am the essence of life, I am woman.

We are left with Donna. Ribbons streaming from her body. Freeze frame.

Blackout.

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I created this poster using canva. I wanted to illustrate an image of a woman trapped yet a part of a house. I decided to use muted tones such as brown following the idea that she is silenced and unable to communicate her feelings over others controlling attitudes towards her body; her home. I added ribbon to keep in theme with our piece and used a collection of ‘houses’ to signify all woman who are connected by this piece of string. Their anatomy, their womb and their being entirely.

“The bricks are bleeding” metaphorically shows that she is loosing her supply of life and choice.

I originally wanted to incorporate the idea that “ ribbon is thicker than water” following the well known phrase “ blood is thicker than water” however I believe my final idea was more fitting.

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To begin, Brecht is widely known for putting a creative and engaging twist on political issues and current events. Immediately my thoughts turned to the recent events in America following the overturning of Roe V Wade, the abortion ban. I shared the idea to my group and we all seemed to somehow connect, as woman, as young people and as humans.

We originally decided that we would create the play around the idea that it was MEN VS WOMAN however; after some feedback from the class we quickly acknowledged that it was never men VS woman, instead pro life VS pro choice.

A helpful process for me was most definitely understanding other people’s opinions on our ideas and the questions they had. The most important question, from Andy, was “ what is the conflict? Where on your storyboard is there any direct conflict happening?” We pondered on the idea and after trial and error decided that the key scene would be set in a court room. In our minds a court room was very Brechtian, we could use placards, masks and break the fourth wall.

We invented “sides”. Red- being PRO LIFE and Blue- being PRO CHOICE.

Red we decided would be law and religion and blue we decided would be society and family.

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Resolving conflict/ when not everyone agrees on an idea. 

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Resolving conflict/ when not everyone agrees on an idea. 

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With any group work there is usually many different ideas. From the beginning we knew not everyone would have the same views on such a serious subject however, we wanted to be as open to change and sensitive as we possibly could.

We received a message from someone within our group sharing that her religious views were not able to support the idea we were trying to portray and she wanted to take a step back from the project. However, we knew that this play was just as much hers as it was ours and we wanted everyone to feel comfortable and included. In order to resolve this we added “ religion” as another party within the court room and added bible verses into the script. communication and understanding as we originally discussed at the beginning of the project was the most important aspect of creation in my opinion.

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Originally we weren’t going to have our character dressed as the house named, however after doing some research I found out that the name “Donna” means woman in a few other languages. Much like in “The inspector Calls” Eva& John smith are used as a symbol, smith being such a common last name helped symbolises​ the everyday people of Britain. Therefore, using the name “Donna” we can symbolise all woman as a collective who are experiencing this loss of control over their own bodies.

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when the idea was first brought forward, everyone within the group was very indecisive.

How could we create a house that tears apart yet remains structured?

How will we implement ribbons?

Will anyone even understand WHY someone is dressed as a house?

And then it hit us all collectively, the part where people asked themselves

and each other why someone was dressed as a house was a representation of what each individual took from our piece. How they connected with it. It would cause discussion and urge people to think.

The house was created as a symbol much like alot of our project. By using metaphors and symbolism we are leaving lots of the imagery up for interpretation whilst still keeping our own creative adaptations.

The house to us is a visual representation of a woman, she is her child’s first home, her body is her home and finally people are trying to take control of her “home”. Her “property”.

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The story follows The House, a woman symbolized as a house, whose body and autonomy are controlled and dismantled by men after she makes the choice to have an abortion. She begins the play expressing love for her "home"—her body—describing it as her sanctuary and sole possession. However, after she reveals her decision to have an abortion, shadowy figures (Men) emerge, condemning her and beginning to take pieces of her "house" away.

In Act II, the Men hold a judgment-like trial, accusing her of being unfit and immoral for her choice. They claim ownership of her body and continue tearing apart her costume, ignoring her pleas and her assertion that the decision was hers to save herself.

In Act III, The House is reduced to ruins, with red ribbons spilling from her body, symbolizing her life force and autonomy. The Men take the final pieces, leaving her collapsed and symbolically dead, while they applaud and claim victory. The story critiques societal control over women’s bodies, focusing on the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s overturning, and emphasizes the devastating consequences of denying women the right to make choices about their own bodies.

1. woman is telling a story how she has had an illegal abortion, she is dressed as a house

2. She is publicly criticised by men about having said illegal abortion . The men try take away parts of her house

3. She is sent to trail and defends that she is punished for death with death leaking the broken system

4. The masked men mock her and tell her that they are the ones in control and she is now possessed by them.

5. As each of them comment they are taking a part of her house away

6. Her house eventually completely collapses with the last piece of the house being taken away.

7. There is nothing left of her but a broken house. The men celebrate their victory

[ before we received feedback and decided that it would be pro-life/ pro-choice instead of men v woman]

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Evicted from my womb

there are men in the walls

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The house of ribbons begins with a woman, dressed as a house, clutching her stomach as she tells a story about having had an abortion. She is soon publicly criticised by others who condemn her for the procedure, leading to a trial. During this trial, the blue team (representing society and her family) stands by her and offers support. In contrast, the red team (representing law and religion) mock and argue against her, creating a clear division. Symbolically, she is punished to death, with parts of her house costume being removed, leaving red ribbons visible as a sign of her vulnerability and anatomy being stripped away. The masked members of the red team then further taunt her, asserting that they now control her, claiming she is possessed by their beliefs. Eventually, her house collapses completely, piece by piece, until nothing remains but a broken structure. Alone, she delivers a final monologue, expressing that she would rather be without a house than live under someone else's control. Like every woman in her position, she vows to rise again.

Our piece is a carefully constructed symbol that speaks for woman around the world who no longer have a voice of their own.

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The full sized finalised version of the boxes. 

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The full sized finalised version of the boxes. 

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Collaborative tasks we took part in before the creation process started 

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Collaborative tasks we took part in before the creation process started 

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Created collages from news papers

Used random materials to create short movement pieces

Used tape guidelines to create a maze in which we had to collectively move an object through

Made a collection of paper aeroplanes

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Hard parts of the process for me-

I believe a hard part of the process for me was filtering through everyone’s ideas and actually starting to create something. It’s very easy as creatives to have ideas, and good ones! So separating our time and using it efficiently to determine what we were and were not going to include was challenging. It took us a while to decide some of the key aspects within the storyline and staging however, once we all sat down and decided together the process felt even more exciting as we were closer to seeing our collective vision come to life.

a good part of the process for me-

Usually, we are surrounded by people within the acting world constantly so to be suddenly diving into stage design, prop making, costume making and more was very exciting for me. I got to see the creation of many different aspects that make up a show, I now have a better understanding of what other courses do and how their work is so different from mine! It’s interesting and great to see how the arts can bring so many different people from such different places together.

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We also added the idea of a pale purple light. 

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Creating and converting the sound!

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Your power- Billie Eilish

It's a man's man's man's world- James Brown

Haileys commet- Billie Eilish

Thousand eyes- FKA Twigs

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for the “chorus”

Red lipstick- stands out and feels dominant.

Light makeup to be seen in bright stage lights.

For “Donna”

Hot glue gun tears, left to dry on non stick paper then applied with eye lash adhesive.

Coloured by using chrome eye shadow.

Lots of glitter/ shimmer

White eye liner to bring focus to eyes

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The importance of celebrating your friends!

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Each show we did seemed to get better in every aspect, of course we were all getting more and more exhausted the more we did however, it was very clear that everyone within our group put so much effort in to the show and each character. Our vision came alive so beautifully!