Max Kolaru

What are the themes of your play? 

Alphabet Spaghetti is told in a series of dramatically framed lyrical monologues, covering the A to Z of domestic and sexual abuse against women and girls. It brings the voices of women and girls subject to abuse to the forefront, while casting a critical spotlight on the barriers that impede Justice for women and girls with lived experience of domestic and sexual violence; and the barriers that impede women and girls from speaking out!

Why did you write it and why now? 

There is a continued pandemic of violence against women and girls. ‘An estimated 736 million women, almost one in three, have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life. Most violence against women is committed by current or former husbands or intimate partners. More than 640 million women aged 15 and older have been subjected to violence from their intimate partner. And every 10 minutes, a woman is killed! (UNWomen). The time to end domestic abuse has never been so pressing.

Which playwrights are you influenced by and why?

I am influenced by a cross section of playwrights, from Debbie Tucker Green to Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett and of course Shakespeare. Most recently, I have been influenced by Ntozake Shange, because of her ability to tell stories in forms that break convention. I also love the lyricism, beats, pauses and absurdist theatre, hence my leaning towards Green, Pinter, Shakespeare and Beckett.

What do you hope to achieve as a playwright?

I hope to tell the stories that British theatre would rather I did not! I hope to write the plays that only the bravest theatres will stage! And I hope that through my work the voices of playwrights, most underrepresented and silent, will be raised!

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