We recently ended the Swedish tour of SEVEN in the Hague in the Netherlands. It was a wonderful final to a year of so many meaningful meetings, reactions, actions in response to the testimonies in SEVEN.
We were invited by the Swedish Embassy to open the conference Women in Warzones, an international conference arranged jointly with the Dutch government.
We decided early on that for this occasion we would put together an international ensemble of actors, and with the help of the Swedish embassy and the contacts of Riksteatern we ended up with actors hailing from Sweden, Great Britain, Palestine, Iran/US, the Netherlands and Kamerun/Russia.
Thanks to the support of the Swedish Institute we could also invite Marina Pisklakova to join us for a talk after each of the two readings.
Yes, there were two – we had a magical ‘final dress’ at the International Institute for Social Studies, a post graduate program with almost exclusively international students, most of them from Africa and Asia.
And then the ‘opening’ at Niuwe Kirke, a Church in central Hague. Close to 400 people, the general public, the international community and participants of the conference listened to the stories of the Seven-women. In the audience we had several other human rights and women’s rights activists, and it was an honor to get to perform for them.
Several people asked me about Seven in the Hague, so I think we can expect at least a few more language translations eventually. I certainly hope so.
It’s been a fantastic ride and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to bring thses stories to a wider audience. Another thing that is satisfying in this is that through SEVEN so many people a re getting in touch with each other and creating new projects, strategies, helping each other to make the world a better place.
Although heavy to the point of despair at times – all the stories I have heard in connection with performing the play – there is still hope and energy in the play that the audience takes away every time.
I would like to wish everyone involved in Vital Voices a good, hopeful, strong, coming year 2010. Let’s hear more voices of change! Warmest regards
Hedda Krausz SjĢ¦gren Producer of SEVEN in Sweden