Hurried steps tells a series of stories of women and girls from around the world who have experienced violence and persecution.
Dacia Maraini was commissioned to write this play by Amnesty International Italy, to support their “Stop violence against women and girls” campaign. She adapted, amalgamated and dramatised testimonies given to Amnesty.
“With hurried steps these women flee from pain and discrimination. But all too often these steps are halted, stopped, nailed down, made to turn back upon themselves. In Europe we delude ourselves that female emancipation is a done thing; that women have acquired autonomy and respect in the communities where they live. You only have to go a few hundred kilometres away to find that the conditions of women are still catastrophic and based on ignorance and violence. Even here, where laws on equality have been changed, and changed for the better, these laws are often not put into practice and women fall victim to psychological and physical violence. Inspired by real facts reported by Amnesty International, the text is a testimony, an accusation, a gesture of solidarity and acknowledgment of all those women who are still prisoners of forced marriage, of a violent family, of a pimp, of tradition or of age-old discriminations which are so difficult to overcome” explained Dacia Maraini.
A reading of the book is organised for Monday 7 October (2019) at the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne thanks to a collaboration with Melbourne University.
The performance, in a rehearsed-reading style, will be followed by a forum discussion to allow further exploration of the issues raised, with a panel of people experienced in working in women’s support services.
Cast: Desi Achilleos, Dilsah de Rham, Claire Kennedy, Charleen Marsters, Sean McCarthy, Connie Owusu, Giuliano Perez Reyes
Panel members: Adele Murdolo, Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health; Nigisti Mulholland,
Family and Reproductive Rights Education Program (FARREP) Coordinator at Royal Women’s Hospital; Marie Jones, African Women’s Clinic Coordinator at Royal Women’s Hospital
Facilitator: Laura Lori (PhD) | ACIS Postdoctoral Fellow in Italian Studies (University of Melbourne)
