REVIEW: WHERE HAVE ALL OUR WOMEN GONE? By Elizabeth Huskisson at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 23 – 27 May 2023

‘Bringing new perspectives and challenging the status quo’ ★★★★

Elizabeth Huskisson founded Sort Sol Theatre Company to make work with a political message that challenges the audience to take a second look at society.   As both writer and solo performer of the Where have all our Women gone? she delivers on that, with this hardcore raw piece of verbatim/partly fictional theatre.  It tackles the subject of violence against women, with profoundly painful energy. 

The stage is littered with torn newspaper with a stack of more to rend as the names of murdered women are called out along with their murderers… husband, boyfriends …. Police officers. We learn that victims don’t necessarily get justice (or coverage on media) especially for sexual assault, and especially women of colour.  

Whilst the statistics and the poetry of repetition continues, we also catch agonised glimpses of one single episode, and the death of a women close to the protagonist.   “Why can’t I remember his name” comes the refrain, and we recall that it’s often someone known by the victim but not always.   I would have liked to hear more about this woman, as it is her story which threads through the piece and gives a more personal touch, versus the political data. 

The references to women being afraid to go out alone at night and being harassed in their daily lives certainly resonates with many of us.   One of the excellent points to the show is that it starts a conversation, it gets people talking and that’s so important so that perpetrators will find it much harder to hide, to go undetected and unpunished for their crimes.

There is some really strong work here from Elizabeth Huskisson, both as actor and writer and if this show is a bit of a hard sell, it has tremendous ambition.  Well worth taking a look at a company bringing new perspectives and challenging the status quo.

WHERE HAVE ALL OUR WOMEN GONE? By Elizabeth Huskisson at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 23 – 27 May 2023

Box Office https://www.thelionandunicorntheatre.com/whats-on

Reviewed by Heather Jeffery