‘The Epstein files are more than men and money.’

As is Jeffrey Epstein juggernaut rolled over in the media earlier this year, changing the world with its terrible stories of fraud and rape by powerful and well-connected men, a small group of female playwrights decided enough: there was a greater need to turn the story on its head, focusing on the suffering of the victims and not the perpetrators.

All the authors belonged to the WhatsApp group. “I just called,” he says Rebecca Lenkiewicz. “I asked: ‘Is anyone else angry about the Epstein files and how it’s about men and money?’ It was not a question of what happened, but of how the media reacted afterwards. ” Lenkiewicz was well-versed in the history of violent and powerful men, who was the screenwriter of She Said, the fight to bring justice to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

45 authors responded. “So, I said, let’s do something. It started very low – maybe we’ll all sit together and read – and it just grew.” After three months, she and a team of directors and designers are about to present an exhibition that will involve more than 80 female writers and non-writers, appearing in 15 spaces in a renovated office in London.

With a week to go, the final drafts are still coming in. “It’s really gangster theatre, where art meets inspiration,” said Lucy Morrison, director of the ensemble. “It’s a lot of ideas flying around on the radio, but really space is empty.” But what’s interesting is that there are many artists who have brought themselves with their bodies and their thoughts and their voices.”

All the rage it will be a two-part work: the first asks the viewers to walk around the small rooms filled with texts, images and installations, to write their answers if they want; the second one will bring the audience together for 50 minutes of performances that Lenkiewicz is preparing together, to perform with nine actors – all but one of the women. Part of the philosophy is that donors give what they can, writers are increasing as everything from publishers to directors. This comes with the agreement that all the participants will fulfill their other duties.

Morrison, who now has a full teaching schedule at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, has brought in some of the student producers he met there to help organize the small space, as well as three other directors, freeing him to concentrate on the public. “Some of the writers manage themselves, some need help, some won’t,” he says. “We have a lot of things to do with having enough directors who can take one voice and work with the actor.”

All the Rage is in the tradition of fast response theater, one notable example of which will be taken as part of it. Lucy Kirkwood is playing 30 minutes in Maryland – originally set for the Royal Court and later adapted for TV – was written over two days in 2021 in response to the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. It’s the only non-original part of the show, hand-me-downs on his lineage, and emphasizing that Epstein and his friends weren’t great in their disregard for women’s lives.

Writers were encouraged to focus on five-minute images or one word. But according to the democratic spirit of the program, says Lenkiewicz, “if they want their half-hour drama to be put on the wall, they can do that.”

One of those who answered the call is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, who is no stranger to the heat it can generate: her acting. Behzti (Dishonour), which depicts rape in a Sikh place of worship, was canceled midway through a tournament in Birmingham in 2005 after protests surrounded the stadium.

Bhatti creates a scene inspired by the classic Indian film of the 1970s, Pakeezah, in which a rich man is forced to dance on a mirror from a chandelier, which breaks when men throw coins at him. “I think I’ve written about (the glamorization of) what is essentially sex work and female domination,” says Bhatti. “Then it comes out of a modern story about the little things that happen in everyday life, using glass as a catalyst.

Another writer, Timberlake Wertenbakerhe decided to answer what he offered as a question. “In these days of social media,” he says, “we don’t question enough, but I think the discipline of asking questions – not really being sure – is good. It’s also very relevant to theater, because theater is always a question: you have a lot of different people there, not saying the same thing.”

Wertenbaker, author of the classic theater as Our Country Is Goodabout a drama set in an Australian prison, now 75 years old and talking about seeing the wave of female power end. “It seems to me that the women’s faith of the 1970s and 80s has never happened. All that history is being erased.

He remembers speaking to Iranian women during the riots caused by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, after she was arrested by “moral police” for violating Iran’s strict laws. “They were incredibly positive, saying that this could be the first time there is a change led by women. And what happened? Immediately you get a war. There was a moment – maybe Gaza – when you suddenly think that, despite everything, many powerful men now feel better because they are returning to what they know: war, fighting. Also, you have Trump in the White House, who you know is an example of brutality.”

The tragedy that is happening in the Middle East may seem far removed from the crimes of a disgraced financier, but as everyone involved in the project makes clear, the whole point of All the Rage is to find the universe in particular, or rather, small in the macro: to investigate how disturbing cultures like Epstein’s or Weinstein’s live in the world today.

How much can a small theater offer? “I don’t see that something about 80-plus writers is trivial at all,” says Bhatti. “Theatre is not a documentary, it is not a news report.” What we think creates a story that goes beyond what we think we know, what makes us feel. And this feeling can lead to another kind of experience – because, even if you can forget the facts, you will not forget how you feel. But it is a slow process.

Lenkiewicz admits: “We all had something that happened to a friend, ourselves or our family.

Besides creating, directing and organizing the play, Lenkiewicz’s contributions will include poetry, letters and video. He said: “I would ask a lot of young people. “This is what I want to do, because I think it is very important to show the power of young people before anyone destroys them, destroys them or confuses them.”

He added: “It is the response of all people, it is not waving the flag and shouting, but gathering anger and turning it into something that is not really sweet, but beautiful and deep.”