It would be different if CUT explored the disjunction between what women do fear and what they should fear with any depth, but it sidesteps that question and siphons its dramatic potential into revenge fantasy against a male monster. The most powerful Australian drama being made about sexual assault today – Prima Facie, Trophy Boys – feels more psychologically grounded for taking this reality as a starting point. Overwhelmingly, stranger danger is presented as the main threat, and overwhelmingly, that isn’t matched by women’s reported experience.Īccording to recent ABS statistics, 87% of women sexually assaulted by men knew the perpetrator, and for 52%, it was an intimate partner. The rapist here does cry and claim he’s “ordinary”, but it’s a mere moment.

Overt surrealism accumulates – built from violence while jogging in a park at night, a tiny mother-figure wielding scissors, the noir-like trope of being pursued by a male passenger with “eyes of ash” – into a crescendo of sexual violation and ultra-violent vengeance.ĬUT feels safe – almost pre-#MeToo in its sensibility – partly because it reproduces with an uncritical eye the “monster myth” about male sexual violence. Her voice drifts uncertainly between the first-, second- and third-person as subliminal fears, memories of childhood cruelty, snatches of news (and perhaps urban legend) fall out of her, like pieces of broken fuselage.

Credit: Jodie Hutchinsonīetween shifts, the woman traverses her narrow catwalk in what might best be described as a highly fragmented dream play. CUT takes on matters of urgent social importance.

Four seasons mozart