Why "The Cycle" matters
Hi everyone,
I hope your all enjoying what we've put out so far for #TheCycle but a few of you may be wondering what is The Cycle to start with.
The show is written to promote the ideology of domestic violence being a human issue and not a gender one. We all know the horrors and implications of the phrase domestic abuse or domestic violence. I bet for most of you the first thing that comes to mind is a man hitting a women, because that's how it was for me.
Until I found out that a very close friend of mine was experiencing domestic abuse from his girlfriend. I saw the transformation of an outgoing happy person to a shell who was to afraid to even leave the house;ending with him in hospital at the hands of his girlfriend. Horrified at the transformation I decided to do a bit of research into the issue and found that just enough is being done as this article states: "victims were "still reluctant to tell" and professionals "still reluctant to ask"." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-34696595?fbclid=IwAR3UvMF2Fo02yOLpxe4T8TgvSEy44wRz9eSKNUnZqqEiOv_0iVQcyhUAsLQ
Why are we reluctant to ask well this article from the independent may explain why "The way we construct masculinity excludes weakness and assumes men will be physically dominant over one another and over women. It’s what sociologist Paul Kivel calls the “act-like-a-man box,” in which men are expected to be violent and in control, particularly in control of women, while supressing their emotions and sucking it up whenever life doesn’t go their way. When a man steps outside of this box, he is often ridiculed as weak or as not being a “real” man. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/domestic-violence-male-victims-shelters-government-funding-stigma-a7626741.html
If this says anything to me its this-domestic abuse is a people issue-not a gender one. Theatre from all the research that I've done and from the productions that I've seen that address domestic violence address it as an issue that affects a woman only. That needs to change and it will when Great Expectations Theatre's new production of The Cycle comes to the Kings Arms Theatre, 11 Bloom Street, Salford, M3 6AN from Wednesday the 20th of March to Friday the 22nd of March at 7:30PM; tickets are on sale now and are available through the following links: Wed 20th of March Thurs 21st of March Fri 22nd of March
There is no shame in being involved in a domestic violence relationship in either a heterosexual or any LGBT relationship-you don't need to suffer in silence. For LGBT victims there's 0800 999 5428 for Gallop the national LGBT domestic violence anti-violence charity
For women there's the National domestic violence help line 0808 2000 247 and for men there's the men's advice helpline: 0808 801 0327
You may see the #BreakTheCycle on Facebook and Twitter and on The Cycle page on this website,-this is our way of standing up against the cycle of abuse and out commitment to stop it so we hope to see it around on social media :)
I'm going to end this by quoting one of my characters in the show" People hit other people. That's not hard to understand"
Hope this have given you some food for thought. Hope to see you on the show date in November, should you require any further information then please do not hesitate to contact me via the Great Expectations Twitter and Facebook Pages or e-mail richard@greatexpectationstheatre.co.uk
For more information on The Cycle please click here
Richard Stringer
Great Expectations Theatre
