As March is the month when International Women's Day takes place, SASS Media wanted to devote our regular page to the remarkable women from Open Clasp Theatre Company, in Newcastle and their co-creators.
We’ve been working with Open Clasp, an awardwinning feminist theatre company tackling big issues that some women in our society face, for several months now in a bid to help promote their plays – and we have to say we are in awe of the powerful work they do.
Open Clasp is the multi-award-winning theatre company behind New York Times Critics’ Pick Key Change and Sugar on BBC iPlayer.
Playwright Catrina McHugh MBE is an advocate for using the stage to shine a spotlight on issues ranging from sex workers’ rights, to how mothers in prison are treated.
Her play Rupture, is on tour in the North East this month, from the 5th to the 18th.
This hour-long one-woman show sees the character Destiny, who was co-created by women in HMP Low Newton, escape onto a prison roof.
From there, the audience discovers for themselves how deep the threads of systematic and societal failures on women in prison go and watch as Destiny decides to take back control.
The play comes hot on the heels of the tour of the film version of another Open Clasp Theatre Company play, Mycelial.
This play was co-created with sex workers from the North East and New Zealand and Catrina visited New Zealand on the film’s tour towards the end of 2024.
Highlighting her pride in Mycelial, she said: “It has been a long process, but the results, in the form of a groundbreaking play which is asking important questions about the way sex workers should be treated, are extremely rewarding.”
Despite her nerves at the New Zealand showing, Catrina felt extremely proud of the film four years after the workshops with sex workers and one year after the film version was created.
She admitted to feeling emotional as she joined the panel of speakers after the second showing of the play in New Zealand.
“It felt so epic and I felt so proud of Open Clasp and the co-creators who took a leap of faith back in 2020, with workshops online during a pandemic,” she said.
“It was a huge production for us to create, but through true collaboration, we have achieved something remarkable with it.”
The same can now also be said of Rupture.
Catrina wrote the play following a series of workshops as part of the Parental Rights in Prison project with NEPACS – a North East charity supporting families affected by the prison or care system – and Durham University.
In England and Wales, women account for around 4% of the prison population and around 60% are mothers (PRT, 2022). It is estimated that over 17,000 children per year are affected by maternal imprisonment (Kincaid et al., 2019).
Catrina says: “Rupture is a great example of how the arts can be used to challenge perceptions around incarcerated women.
“We have been co-creating theatre with women in prison for over 10 years and are committed to the community of people who are incarcerated in this country as talented theatre makers with voices which need to be heard and as our audience.
“We are proud to have created such a compelling piece of theatre, which explores the harsh realities of prison life for women and particularly, incarcerated mothers.”
Three cheers for Open Clasp and the important advocacy of women their creative works achieve!
They are truly changing the world one play at a time!
For more stories on Open Clasp and other SASS Media clients visit www.sassmedialtd.co.uk
