SCRATCHES Comes to VAULT Festival This Month

In a frank and honest depiction of self-harm based on personal experience, writer and performer Aoife Kennan celebrates survival, healing and the importance of friendship in a show filled with heart and humour. Scratches aims to talk about the hard stuff without sensationalising, and add a bit of self-deprecating comedy without trivialising. Plain Heroines return to VAULT Festival after their 2020 The 4th Country, which transferred to Park Theatre in 2022.

Scratches is the story of GIRL and her self-harm. For too long, she's been hiding her scratches with unfashionably long socks, clever white lies and period pads. But now she's here to set the record straight. Assisted by her (fabulous and scene-stealing) BEST FRIEND, she explores a series of 'events', jumping backwards and forwards through time, trying to make sense of it all.

Writer and performer Aiofe Kennan said, "Self-harm is really hard to talk about. I started writing Scratches really as a way to work out my own feelings about this mad, unmentionable thing I was struggling with. We've developed this play over several years of ups and downs, but I hope that our recipe of frank and funny can be the start of a conversation. (As well as a really good night out!)"

Aoife Kennan is an Irish writer and performer who grew up in Durham. She is a recent member of the Royal Court Writers Group and is currently developing a new play as one of eight writers selected for Sky Comedy Rep, a new partnership between the Birmingham Rep and Sky Comedy. Recent acting credits include The 4th Country (Park Theatre); C-O-N-T-A-C-T (Aria Entertainment); Victoria (ITV) and the feature film, Blue Jean (BBC/BFI). Aoife is joined on stage by Zak Ghazi-Torbati (Hot Gay Time Machine, Age of Outrage on BBC One).

Plain Heroines are a female led theatre company who make funny plays about difficult subjects. Previous work includes January (White Bear Theatre), Three Days' Time (Edinburgh Fringe) and Madwomen in the Attic (Edinburgh Fringe). The 4th Country (VAULT Festival and Park Theatre) was a finalist for the Charlie Hartill Award 2020.

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