EDINBURGH 2022: Jenna Fincken Guest Blog

Guest Blog: Wildcard bring thrilling, unsettling new play to the Edinburgh Fringe

Jenna Fincken discusses creating a safe space in theatre when dealing with emotional subjects

Writer and performer Jenna Fincken blogs for Broadway World about premiering Ruckus at the Fringe. She details how she has sensitively created work which deals with real people's experiences, self-care for her audiences and how theatre challenges social narratives.

Ruckus is my debut play. It's a one-woman thriller exploring the suppression and destruction caused by coercive control. Taking the audience through the sensations of being at the beginning of a coercively controlled relationship, this tense and thought-provoking drama will raise questions about women's vulnerabilities to psychologically violent relationships within today's patriarchal society. It explores how easy it is to be trapped in a cycle of threats, humiliation and intimidation and the system of power in our society which enables and protects the actions of perpetrators.

'Lou' is a 28-year-old primary school teacher who's wholly aware the audience are watching her. She wants to show them exact moments in her relationship, breaking down the progression of coercion as Lou journeys from freedom to being trapped.

When I was approaching writing about a current social issue that affects so many people, I knew detailed work and self-care was essential throughout the creation of Ruckus. The detailed work began with research, which has been ongoing over the last three years. To reports from leading charities, sociologists, investigative journalists and researchers tackling coercive control.

Focus on self-care for the creative team and audience has also been a big priority with Ruckus. With such a collective of different groups, you can never know people's experiences.

Since the R&D phase, Director Georgia Green did a fantastic job of asking the team in the rehearsal room how we best care for ourselves when dealing with a topic that can affect us all. We agreed on such steps as group warmups, proper breaks, check ins and group cool downs. Though it sounds simple, it was a brilliant way to tap in and out of the important themes of the play.

I've created a Self-Care Guide which has been designed to support audiences attending performances of Ruckus. I hope the guide will help audiences experiencing the show, and support planning for anyone who may be concerned about their visit. The contents of the guide include information on the show, content warnings, helplines and support, self-care suggestions, synopsis of the play and more about self-care. This guide will be available on the Wildcard website and at the venue of Ruckus.

I was completely inspired to create the Self-Care Guide when the following companies created guides for their productions:

• 20 Stories High's production of Buttercup & Touchy
• New Diorama, Royal Court and Nouveau Riche's production of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy by Ryan Calais
• Clean Break's production of Typical Girls by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

I'm massively grateful for these companies' recent approaches.

My intention has never been to shock or traumatise an audience. It's to hold their hand while exploring the story. This is why Ruckus has moments of breath or when the full action of the scene doesn't need to be shown. As human beings, we're good at joining the dots together. But we need space to take the information in.

With doing the detailed work and self-care for the team and audience to sensitively create a play inspired by real people's experiences - I feel like I have created a safe space.

A safe space is so important as it welcomes different groups with all unique experiences. Ready to be open and encourage the audience to experience and empathise with a different story to theirs. This way, theatre can inspire different groups on how we need to change the social narrative. And this for Ruckus, changing society's question from, "Why does she stay? '' to "Why as a society do we produce perpetrators in the first place?".

Ruckus, Summerhall, Cairns Lecture Theatre, 3.30pm, 3-28 August (not 15 or 22)

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