Is Justice blind? Or is she blinkered? That’s the question asked by Nina Raine’s powerful, painful and darkly funny play Consent, which hits The Crescent’s stage on June 8th.
Set in the present day, Consent sees friends Ed (Scott Westwood) and Tim (Mark Payne) take opposing briefs in a rape case. The key witness is a woman (Katie Merriman) whose life seems a world away from theirs, and soon their own lives begin to unravel at home as every version of the truth is challenged.
Taking charge of this production is Crescent veteran Andrew Cowie, who has directed a myriad of plays over the years, but feels that Consent is something very special indeed.
‘I knew nothing about Nina Raine or Consent until I saw it on an NT Live stream and it was one of the best plays I have ever seen,’ says Cowie. ‘I love the way the characters speak. They can go from breaking your heart to making you laugh out loud in a moment, so it’s a gift for actors to play. I also think the way in which Raine shows how the legal system fails the victims of sexual violence is very timely.’
Although the play appeared only a few months before the #MeToo movement began and tackles the sensitive topic of sexual assault, Cowie doesn’t see it as a #MeToo play.
‘I think an audience today will inevitably see it through the lens of the #MeToo movement, but while #MeToo was a call for solidarity, Consent is more of a provocation for the audience to debate on the way home. Some terrible people do terrible things in the play, but Nina Raine deliberately muddies the water. There’s no question that Consent is on the side of the female characters, but Raine refuses to simply condemn the men in the play. She wants you to find yourself sympathising with characters you thoroughly disapprove of.’
Any cast in a Crescent production will feature a mix of new company members and veteran hands, and Consent is no different. Perdita Lawton takes on her first role as part of a Crescent cast, while more established members such as Grace Cheatle and James Knapp delve into the dark recesses of two splintered relationships. Cowie calls the rehearsal process so far ‘one of the best and most enjoyable directing experiences I’ve ever had’ and has high hopes that ‘if we can get what we have in the rehearsal room onto the stage, this will be something special.’
Currently celebrating its centenary, Consent follows in The Crescent’s long tradition of staging provocative plays, which will continue next year with Lucy Prebble’s The Effect and Stef Smith’s Nora: A Doll’s House. As a long-time member of The Crescent, Cowie is uniquely positioned to comment on that commitment to producing exciting, often controversial works.
‘That’s in The Crescent Theatre’s DNA,’ explains Cowie. ‘We were the first theatre in England to stage Noel Coward’s play Semi-Monde in the 1970s and we staged Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping And F*cking within ten years of its première at The Royal Court. We do family entertainment as well – but our audience knows that they can see plays at The Crescent Theatre that they couldn’t find anywhere else.’