Douze

Alexia, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, was murdered by a classmate for having ‘rejected his advances’ on 1 February 2016. *Twelve* is a play about the silencing of women who are victims of violence, about the unwavering love of mothers, and about the failure of justice.

The post-mortem revealed 27 stab wounds, twelve of which were inflicted after the girl’s death; the trial was held in camera, and the defence of minority was upheld. Douze is the score of a silenced voice, in twelve scenes — or ‘songs’ — constructed through repetition, like a litany, around haunting images: the stone, the hole, the water, the blood.

The theatre becomes the setting for a public trial by default: the spectator alone is the judge. A., the victim, seeks to escape the clutches of her murderer and the hole in which he has locked her away — to return to her mother’s womb, then to the sea. Three performers take on the roles around her, within an organic set design made of tarpaulin, cork shavings and video projections.