"At times this is intensely uncomfortable viewing...Like the women at its heart, this is a powerful and fearless production."
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"There is so much emotion surrounding Yael Farber's 'Nirbhaya' that it may be beyond criticism...It is undeniably powerful and unbearably harrowing...It gives us the tools to empathise, but not the tools to take action. In an intimate venue with the opportunity for discussion afterwards, 'Nirbhaya' could start to change the world; playing to hundreds at a time with no audience aftercare, it veers dangerously close to well-meaning theatrical misery memoir."
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"It’s one of the most uncompromising pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen, unbearably tough almost all the time...Farber and her performers are continuing along the trail blazed by the worldwide outcry that followed Nirbhaya’s violation. Proudly, they shatter the pervasive shame culture of silence that surrounds sexual violence against women."
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"The power of theatrical performance is painfully apparent in this work, which is more a testimony than a play and takes verbatim theatre to a new level...This must surely be the most moving Edinburgh presentation of the year and despite its grim subject matter should not be missed."
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"Powerful and incredibly moving, 'Nirhbaya' prises open the crack that the real life event caused, in getting women to speak out about their own experiences of abuse...Farber's compelling language, layered onto the real stories, is mostly violent, angry, poetic and a bit sweary... Farber's message is clear; this is a collective problem and we – men and women – must speak out."
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"As the harrowing stories begin, 'Nirbhaya’s' initial effect on the audience is to stun, to cow, to leave us helpless. With a nimble economy of stagecraft oppression is summoned with a heavy air."
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"One of the most powerful pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen...This is consciousness-raising theatre of the old school...As one performer says, 'We can be silent no more.' That is reason enough to see this urgent, compelling show."
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"This is a terrible, dreadful couple of hours in the theatre: I hope it is a long time before I am so upset again by a similar intensity of feeling. It is also art of the highest order."
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