Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Brutal Cessation

Brutal Cessation is a savage new play by Milly Thomas (Clique BBC3, A First World Problem and Clickbait, Theatre503) exploring violence in relationships, our expectations of gender and what happens when we're no longer in love but refuse to let go. Following the story of a rotting relationship and the purgatory that follows, the show asks: Is having no reason to stay a reason to leave?

Thomas’s production is about the absence of love, that gnawing feeling that is left behind after a relationship. When you’re too proud to admit you were wrong, what lengths will you go to in order to emerge unscathed? Laced with dark humour, Brutal Cessation is a unique exploration of traditional power play as the actors swap roles throughout the sixty minute show, offering a refreshing perspective into both men and women’s experience of victimhood as their reality becomes emotionally and physically unsafe.

The current statistics show that roughly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men are suffering violence within their relationships. There is a lot of work to be done in creating an environment where people are able to come forward and share their experiences. In 2015, Thomas herself took someone to court over sexual assault on public transport and was astonished at how she was made to feel. She may have won the case but, because of the lack of respect for ‘victims’, it didn’t feel like a victory and she saw how other people may be discouraged to report abuse due to the lack of support given. Brutal Cessation explores how violence, suggested or actualised, can so easily pervade our everyday lives, sometimes without us even realising it.

Milly Thomas comments, I'm utterly fascinated by what happens when we know we should leave a relationship but we don't. At what point the fear eclipses the love and which way round. Although this piece isn’t autobiographical, it began as a short play when I was in a relationship that wasn’t right for me. I was astonished by the games my own mind came up with to avoid what was bothering me. I wanted to explore the difficultly around frank conversations, especially when the issues at hand have moved into harmful territory.