Stet
Off - Broadway at Abingdon Theatre Company

 

Why do bad things happen to good girls?  Stet takes a serious look at Campus rape, and its damaging effects through the eyes of an investigative reporter.  Based on a real “article”,  Stet will not only raise questions about journalistic integrity, the ignorance of our educators, and the abandonment of victims of rape, but will also raise the hair on the back of your neck.

The time is the recent past and we are listening to journalist Erica (Jocelyn Kuritsky) and her editor Phil (Bruce McKenzie) discussing an angle on a story about campus rape as they are watching videos of the victims on the Internet.  They decide to focus on a victim named Ashley (Lexi Lapp) who they see speaking at a Take Back the Night Rally.  Take Back the Night is an organization whose mission is to put an end to sexual, relationship and domestic violence.  Ashley has a horrific story of rape that was possibly a Fraternity initiation or hazing rite.   She is scared and confused, but agrees to tell her story to Erica.

As the investigation continues we meet Christina Torres (Déa Julien) a recent graduate who is the project coordinator on campus for Sexual misconduct response & Prevention. She explains that the group is there to help the victims feel better.  They do not encourage victims to report reporting the incidents to the police for reasons we all know.  Victims turn into drunk, wild whores who asked for it. Christina says that reporting rape to the authorities is an act of civil disobedience. 

Erica interviews another student, Connor (Jack Fellows) who is from the local One in Four Chapter. One in Four is another organization similarly focused on preventing sexual misconduct, and educating the male students about improper behavior.  He denies that  Ashley’s story could be true and if you haven’t already started to  question Erica’s reporting ethics, you certainly will start now.     In these cases it’s often hard to know who is telling the truth, and a reporter has a duty to the victim as well as the accused of reporting only the facts.

Christina returns telling Erica that Ashley is having second thoughts and no longer wants to be in the story.   She volunteers up her own story of rape for the article, but the editor doesn’t like it.  He wants the Ashley story with names.   Erica loses it and now confesses the story of her own rape to put some perspective around his narrow-minded thinking and   bring this up-close and personal.   Is there good rape and bad rape?  How badly do you need to be abused to get a cover story? She later retracts, but the seed is sown, and we perhaps find the motivation in this reporters mission to print this story at any cost.

 Ashley concedes under pressure to allow the story to be published but still refuses to give names telling Erica ‘You just care about my story, you don’t care about me’.  The Editor agrees to let this cover story go stet (As is) even though none of the allegations were proven.  The story gets national attention and becomes the most read article in the magazine’s history that is not celebrity.  This story ends with Erica being interviewed by MSNBC, but the story on which this was based on does not.  I will leave it up to you to investigate.

Jocelyn Kuritsky is a dramatic standout, and the rest of the cast give fine performances.   There are some creative uses of the glass office walls that double as projection screens adding dramatic effect. Tony Speciale directs this story by Kim Davies to a  (ste)T.  He is no amateur when it comes to working good theatre into good causes as he does here by donating a portion of each full price ticket to Take Back the Night, and has done similar work in the past with The Secret Court and The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey by raising awareness and money for The Trevor Project, a suicide hotline for gay youths.

While this is a story about ethics and editing in reporting it brings to light the failure of the system towards our youth.  Search for the truth today.    For tickets and more information visit http://abingdontheatre.org/ and check for available discounts here  -ThisbroadSway 6/22/16