Replay Presents

BodyCount

By Gary Mitchell

It’s not enough that it happened. It’s not enough to have proof. You have to be believed.

“We handle it ourselves. We keep it a secret, and we deal with it as a family.”

What happens to a family when the unthinkable happens?

Body Count is the powerful new play by internationally recognised, multi-award-winning writer Gary Mitchell, exploring sexual violence against women and girls, adolescence, masculinity and the ripples that spread through a family and into the wider community.

At its heart is a family trying to make sense of what has happened to their daughter. As the consequences unfold, we see the impact from multiple perspectives.

A girl in crisis.
A mother wondering whether to share her own experience.
A father struggling with his sense of masculinity and power.
A son feeling helpless and enraged.
And a family trying to navigate a system that includes the police, the community and each other.

With an intimate, stripped-back staging that puts the audience right in the middle of the action, Body Count asks difficult questions about the ways society fails victims of sexual assault and what happens when we allow misogyny and harmful ideas to take hold.

In a world where young people are increasingly exposed to online conversations around masculinity and the manosphere, Body Count opens up an urgent conversation for young people, parents, teachers and anyone trying to understand the forces shaping adolescence today.

Written from a family and societal perspective, this is a story about more than one individual or one incident. It asks how abuse affects everyone around it and how families and communities respond when the damage reaches them.

A Replay Theatre Company production, supported by

Arts Council of Northern Ireland · The National Lottery · Belfast City Council · Garfield Weston Foundation

Book your tickets now