80 Women Stage 'All the Rage' on Epstein Files
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- Rebecca Lenkiewicz launched 'All the Rage' via WhatsApp after the Epstein files coverage; 45 writers responded and the project grew to 80+ contributors staging work across 15 spaces in a repurposed City of London office block (Theatre Deli, 11-13 June).
- Lucy Morrison is directing the two-part production: visitors wander through installations writing their own responses, then gather for a 50-minute piece performed by 9 actors (all but one female), with writers doubling as stage managers and publicists in a deliberately non-hierarchical setup.
- Lucy Kirkwood's 'Maryland' — written in two days in 2021 after the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa — is the only non-original piece included, 'to emphasise that Epstein and his cronies were not outliers in their disregard for the lives of women.'
- Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti — whose 2005 play Behzti was cancelled mid-run in Birmingham after Sikh-protester backlash — contributes a scene inspired by the 1970s Indian film Pakeezah, drawing a line from glamorized sex work to everyday micro-objectifications of women.
- Timberlake Wertenbaker (author of Our Country's Good, now 75) framed her contribution as a question, and said 'the feminism of the 1970s and 80s never happened,' linking the project to Iran, the Middle East and the White House as evidence of a broader rollback.
- Lenkiewicz is contributing a poem, a letter, and video interviews with teenagers, saying 'this idea of shame is still very prevalent' and that the goal is to 'shift that' by transforming rage 'into something not exactly palatable, but rather beautiful and profound.'
Why it matters: For a 3-day Theatre Deli run, 80 writers are betting art can reframe the Epstein story — which Lenkiewicz says the press keeps 'all about the men and the money' — around victims' voices. Bhatti calls the cultural shift 'a slow process,' but the show models rapid-response feminist theatre for abuse stories the news cycle moves past.
