Them’s The Breaks – The Documentary Tackling Inequality In Irish Theatre

It has been several months now since the #WakingTheFeminists movement was spawned by Lian Bell after she was angered at the huge gender imbalance in the Abbey Theatre's Program for 2016. We were there last November and were delighted to hear of this new project launching today. Them's The Breaks is an exciting new documentary which has launched its crowdfunding campaign on FundIt today. The filmmakers were inspired by the #WakingTheFeminists movement and want to critique and examine Ireland's gender bias against female theatre-makers. The figures speak for themselves, and should shock you. One female artist out of ten programmed for The Abbey Theatre’s Waking The Nation centenary programme, demonstrating an overwhelming 90% favour towards male artists’ work. According to figures by Brenda Donohue, of 320 plays staged in our National Theatre between the years 1995-2014, only 36 were written by women (full production single author). According to figures by Brenda Donohue, of 320 plays staged in our National Theatre between the years 1995-2014, only 36 were written by women (full production single author). This film hopes to examine what this bias says about the importance placed on women’s stories and voices in Ireland, and try and come towards conclusion about creating a fairer and more equal country for female artists, and women in general.

The team are made up of Sarah Barr (Producer), Sarah Corcoran (Director), Stephen Elliott (Writer) and Aoife Kelly (Producer), who are all passionate about making socially engaged films to affect real change.

They are asking for your support to help raise essential production funds on their FundIt page. Watch the deadly trailer below.

Them's The Breaks FundIt Video from Them's The Breaks on Vimeo.