SIMA

Written by Ellen Bannerman

Cast: Esme Hough, Drew Gregg, Lucy Menzies

Directed by Maddy Corner

Set Design: Lily McKay

Costume Design: Natasha Gatward

Film Design: Sara Aceto

Lighting Design: Timothy Kelly

Sound Design: Maddy Corner

Intimacy Coordinator: Kat Hardman

Fight Coordinator: Joe Golby

Assistant Director: Ariana Xenofontos

Jess, a lost university student has been haunted by a memory of a woman being attacked by a man on a factual reality TV episode. Her whole life Jess has been exposed to similar brutalised images of women’s bodies, which fuel her fear of being assaulted by a man. When Jess is directly confronted by her fear, through a spirit arriving in her home, her world is turned upside down as we explore the complex nature of abuse.

In the UK, a woman is killed every three days by a man. Usually by someone they know, often in their own homes. During the pandemic, we saw a sharp increase of domestic violence, and with recent events in the news, this is predicted to rise. SIMA is a morality play for 21st-century feminists. Unlike other morality plays it doesn’t present a resolve to the audience, but instead asks the question of ‘how do we, as a society, cure this epidemic’?

Set in modern-day Edinburgh, Sima blurs naturalism with the supernatural, taking us out of the ordinary and into a world that is spiritual, ancient and uncertain.