I just wanted to talk about two awesome events I had the pleasure of witnessing this month… This post isn’t a review, but it seemed wrong not to talk about them a little bit.

I saw Rites at Contact on 12th May and I was absolutely blown away. A co-production from Contact and the National Theatre of Scotland, Rites focusses on the highly controversial and sensitive subject of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In all honesty, I felt like I was going to be watching it through my fingers. But director Cora Bissett and co-creator Yusra Warsama have created an intelligent, thought-provoking and informative piece of theatre, using a myriad of characters from different backgrounds to speak directly to the audience. There are lawyers, doctors, teachers, midwives, mothers, lecturers – and every single monologue is taken verbatim from real life perspectives on FGM. These perspectives are brought to life by a cast of just…