Five Kinds of Silence

‘This is not real, this is not true, can’t you see it in my eye’

So asks Janet when she begs onlookers to see the misery behind her smiles, in Shelagh Stephenson’s Five Kinds of Silence, coming to the Abbey Theatre this week.

Janet is 34. She has never slept alone. She’s never been on holiday. She’s never been anywhere. She lives in a family terrorised by her father, controlled by rules, fearful of punishments. This painful, and yet poetic drama gives us an authentic insight into the causes and effects of domestic violence.

Rory Byrne plays Billy. He says, ‘Billy says, “I love my family’” so why, then does he make their lives a living hell? Could it have been different? Are there any mitigating circumstances to explain or excuse Billy’s behaviour? Or is he just a monster?’

Lianne Weidmann, who plays Billy’s eldest daughter, Susan, says, ‘this is the most challenging role I’ve played since joining the Company of Ten. Trying to get into Susan’s head has been a real journey for me. She’s such a strong yet emotionally damaged character. I want to do her justice.’

And justice is, indeed, what this family needs. Susan and Janet have been driven to kill their father. Will they go to prison for their crimes? A team of psychiatrists, lawyers and police surround the family to try to discover the events that led to the murder. A lot of questions are asked. The answers given are sometimes tragic, sometimes extremely funny, always astonishing. Rachel Barker, the company’s Deputy Stage Manager has accompanied the cast on their journey from the start. ‘There are some truly spine-tingling moments,’ she says.

The Abbey Theatre’s Studio is intimate and atmospheric, allowing the audience to feel the claustrophobia of the characters’ lives whilst maintaining appropriate social distancing.

Elena Markham, who plays, Mary, Billy’s wife and the mother of Susan and Janet, says, ‘As a mother of two daughters myself, I’ve found it almost impossible to understand how Mary is unable to protect her daughters from her husband. But the play explores Mary’s own childhood as well as Billy’s and it’s in these flashbacks that I’ve begun to see how this cycle of abuse can occur. As Mary says, “let the blight end here!”’

• Show: current/future_show
• Society Name: 40242
• Venue Name: Abbey Theatre, St Albans
• Opening date: 08/10/2021
• Venue Postcode: AL12DL
• Closing date: 16/10/2021
• Region: east_of_england
• Credits ( author / playwright ): Shelagh Stephenson
• Website: https://www.abbeytheatre.org.uk/when-silence-speaks-volumes/
• Tickets cost per person (£): £13 / £12
• Box Office phone number: 01727857861