SHENECA SHARPE
Staff Writer
Corey Maher / Photo Editor
The play “SEVEN,” composed of monologues based on the interviews of women from all corners of the world sharing their personal experience of abuse, hit Rosch Recital Hall on Oct. 8. The monologues were recited by Jamestown and Fredonia leaders in community and education, such as President Virginia Horvath and environmental sciences professor Sherri Mason.
It was an intimate setting where the people reciting the monologues sat down in chairs and read these experiences for the audience to listen and to feel a sense of empathy for these women.
The first act of “SEVEN” was the personal accounts based off women who reside in seven different countries. Some of the stories that were shared included sexual, emotional and often physical abuse.
The performances in the second act were especially moving because they were the stories of women who live in the Chautauqua County area. These women had to read their own personal stories for everybody to hear and to, hopefully, understand. There were a lot of tears shed from the women on stage and even amongst the audience members. It was so moving that not many students were willing to give their comments on the play.
“The lesson here is that people like this find recovery at the end. It’s not this hopeless journey. At the end, there is a breaking point and a place for them to find themselves,” said Chelsea May, a junior majoring in biology.
There were stories about women pending mass amounts of money on crack cocaine and not being able to come home unless they had drugs, having affairs because after their sexual assault they didn’t feel worthy of someone loving them, or losing their child to CPS because of the abuse that would go on in the home.
“It leaves a really powerful message that there’s a lot of hope for these people with these amazing stories. I felt very connected to a lot of people that were on the stage,” said May.
“SEVEN” was an eye-opener to the world of abuse that most people ignore. It helped create a conversation of how to end the cycle of abuse for not just women, but for any gender. It’s in the hopes that plays like this can continue to start the conversation and to hopefully end it as the cycle of abuse ends too.