More than eighty non-binary and female writers have collaborated on an bold guerrilla theatre addressing the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and its consequences. Titled All the Rage, the production will launch this week across fifteen spaces within a converted office building in the City of London. The project was created when screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, troubled by media coverage that prioritised perpetrators over victims, posed a basic question to her WhatsApp group of playwrights: “Is anyone else enraged about the Epstein files and how it’s all about the men and the money?” Within weeks, forty-five writers had responded, and the grassroots initiative snowballed into a expansive theatrical production that merges artistic expression with activist aims, featuring installations, text-based pieces, and a fifty-minute theatrical piece.
From Anger to Art
The shift from private frustration to public spectacle happened quite rapidly. What began as Lenkiewicz’s direct inquiry to writing peers escalated within three months into a complete stage production. The speed of development reflects the urgency many felt about retaking control of the Epstein story. “It started off quite grassroots – perhaps we’ll all get together and have a reading – and it just escalated,” Lenkiewicz explains. The shared creative process of the project meant that initial momentum built swiftly, with contributors rallying around a shared sense of purpose and determination to centre victim experiences rather than perpetrator profiles.
Director Lucy Morrison defines the production as “guerrilla theatre, where art meets activism,” reflecting the unconventional spirit driving the entire endeavour. With just days before opening, final scripts are continuing to arrive, and the creative team remains engaged in assembling the ambitious multi-venue installation. The ethos prioritises flexibility and collective contribution, with writers and artists working across multiple roles—from publicity to production management. This grassroots approach ensures that All the Rage remains rooted in authentic passion rather than bureaucratic structures, allowing the work to maintain its visceral emotional authenticity and activist edge.
- Ninety-minute interactive journey spanning fifteen interconnected spaces
- First half features wandering installations with audience response opportunities
- Closing section presents 50-minute theatre piece performed by nine actors
- Team members volunteer in creative and practical positions collectively
Establishing a Unified Approach
The Community-Led Initiative
The emergence of All the Rage showcases the power of shared anger transmitted via current communication methods. Lenkiewicz’s straightforward question to her WhatsApp group—”Is anyone else outraged about the Epstein files and how it’s all about the men and the money?”—touched a nerve that spread way past initial expectations. Within weeks, 45 writers had committed to taking part, converting a moment of frustration into a collaborative creative effort. The swift organisation emphasises how significantly the media’s narrative focus had disturbed these creatives, driving them to seize agency and reshape the conversation themselves.
What characterises this initiative is its conscious refusal of traditional theatrical hierarchies. Rather than depending on established institutions or funding bodies, contributors have adopted a voluntary spirit where everyone contributes according to their skills and circumstances. Writers undertake administrative duties, designers oversee logistics, and performers take on promotional responsibilities. This horizontal structure reflects the initiative’s activist foundations and ensures that every participant feels genuine ownership of the final product. The absence of rigid job descriptions opens room for creativity to develop naturally, with individuals discovering unexpected talents and forging meaningful artistic relationships in the process.
The joint model transcends artistic input to encompass the theoretical foundation of the entire production. By distributing labour and decision-making power amongst over eighty contributors, All the Rage embodies the collective feminist principles it seeks to articulate through performance. This strategy echoes consciousness-raising traditions within women’s movements, where shared experience and mutual support generate both artistic and activist transformation. The production thus becomes not simply a means of conveying rage about organisational failings, but a practical embodiment of new models for collective work and artistic production, disrupting conventional power dynamics inherent in mainstream theatre.
- WhatsApp group coordination enabled swift onboarding and organisation of writers
- Community-driven structure removes conventional power structures and institutional gatekeeping
- Contributors undertake multiple roles spanning creative, administrative and logistical functions
- Collaborative decision-making reflects feminist values integral to the initiative
- Shared ownership guarantees genuine commitment in the production’s success and vision
Echoes of Opposition
Experienced Writers Champion the Movement
The swift coordination of over eighty writers illustrates the depth of collective anger regarding how the Epstein scandal has been represented. Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s initial WhatsApp call struck a chord with playwrights, screenwriters and poets who recognised a significant absence in public discourse. The response was immediate and overwhelming, with forty-five writers answering within days. Many contributors bring proven credentials and demonstrated expertise in theatre and film, bringing both artistic credibility and professional experience to the independent initiative. Their willingness to abandon traditional institutional barriers highlights the urgency they feel about reclaiming the narrative.
What characterises this collective event is not merely the scale of attendance but their intentional dismissal of hierarchical structures and personal ambition. Recognised literary figures work alongside rising practitioners, all dedicated to a shared vision rather than individual recognition. This equalisation of standing embodies a significant transformation in how artistic work can be arranged, especially in the context of feminist artistic practice. The project draws accomplished practitioners precisely because it offers something conventional theatre cannot: an genuine space for collaborative articulation where artistic standards stays central and commercial considerations remain secondary to the urgent work of documenting experience.
From Personal to Universal
Each writer brings personal experiences of systemic breakdown, mistreatment and suppression to the work. Some have recorded these wrongs through previous work; others are sharing their stories for the very first time. The heterogeneity of perspectives—spanning varying ages, origins, ethnic backgrounds and lived experiences—ensures that All the Rage avoids a single unified story. Instead, the production celebrates plurality, acknowledging that victimisation and resistance manifest in numerous ways. By intertwining diverse accounts and creative reactions, the piece transforms personal suffering into shared awareness, demonstrating that personal suffering often reflects institutional breakdowns affecting people worldwide.
The transition from personal testimony to universal statement occurs through the structural framework of the production. The exploratory opening section allows audiences to discover individual voices and responses in intimate spaces, nurturing a sense of connection and understanding. The assembled final section then synthesises these fragmented narratives into a unified theatrical vision, intensifying their impact. This structure mirrors awareness-building practices within feminist movements, where telling personal narratives reveals larger patterns of injustice. By orchestrating this journey from separation to solidarity, All the Rage reshapes personal anger into collective accountability.
Theatre serving as Social Activism
All the Rage constitutes a conscious refusal of theatre as light entertainment, establishing creative expression as a direct political intervention. By directing collective fury into artistic form, the production demonstrates how theatre can function as a tool for public accountability and cultural opposition. The project’s very existence—born from a WhatsApp group’s outrage and developed through grassroots collaboration—embodies the activist ethos underpinning every artistic choice. Rather than downplaying sensitive material for market appeal, the production insists on tackling structural failures that permit influential men to escape justice whilst victims remain sidelined. This unflinching approach turns the theatre into a space where fury becomes productive, where anger demands to receive witness and affirmed
The activist dimension extends beyond thematic content to encompass the production’s creative ethos. By allocating responsibilities equally amongst contributors and dismantling power hierarchies, the creative team implements feminist principles within the very fabric of theatrical production. This methodology disrupts conventional industry practices where individual authorship and commercial viability typically dictate artistic decisions. Instead, All the Rage champions collective voice and mutual accountability, demonstrating that genuine political engagement requires reshaping not just what theatre says, but how it is made. The production thus becomes a practical demonstration for new methods for organising creative work, where solidarity takes precedence over ego and moral principle outweighs profit.
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| Collaborative Structure | Over 80 female and non-binary writers contribute collectively, with contributors serving multiple roles from publicists to stage managers |
| Artistic Format | Two-part experience combining intimate wandering installations with a 50-minute gathered theatre piece performed by nine actors |
| Venue | Repurposed office block in the City of London with 15 separate spaces, transformed into an immersive theatrical environment |
| Political Purpose | Centres victim experiences whilst challenging media narratives that prioritise perpetrators’ stories and financial implications |
The production’s activist credentials are further strengthened by its dedication to inclusivity and spectator involvement. Rather than treating audiences as passive recipients, the wandering first half encourages active participation through written responses and personal reflection. This opening up of theatrical practice understands that activism succeeds through active involvement rather than passive spectatorship. By establishing room for spectators to add their own voices and testimonies, All the Rage broadens the project’s consciousness-raising mission beyond the production team, fostering connection among those who engage with and react to the piece.