Photography by Ali Wright
When We Died
“He’s dead, and it’s her job to prepare and present his body for his family’s final goodbye. She often imagines what each person’s life was like. But today she doesn’t have to imagine who he is. She knows him.
Faced with the body of the man who raped her eleven months ago, When We Died is a striking new play about one woman’s choice to confront her trauma and tell her story, on her terms.
A story about overcoming trauma, choice and ownership of narrative.”
Vaults Festival (2020), Online Film (2021), National Tour and Summerhall as part of Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2023)
WRITER AND PERFORMER Alexandra Donnachie
PRODUCER Carbon Theatre
MOVEMENT AND INTIMACY DIRECTOR Christina Fulcher
DESIGN Froud
SOUND DESIGN Curtis Arnold-Harmer
TRAUMA SPECIALIST Julia Langley
CONSULTATION Serenity Northampton SARC
VENUES Vaults Festival (2020), Pleasance Theatre - Film (2021), National Tour 2023: Town & Gown Theatre (Cambridge), The Nest (Hastings) The Dukes (Lancaster) Harrogate Theatre, Greenwich Theatre, Jermyn Street Theatre, The Core at Corby Cube, Ustinov Studio - Theatre Royal Bath, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Summerhall as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023
Shortlisted for The Filipa Bragança Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023
Winner of Best Script from The Stagey Place. Also nominated for Best Play and Best Solo Performance
★★★★★ West End Best Friend
★★★★★ Lost in Theatreland
★★★★★ Fringe Biscuit
★★★★ The Indiependent
★★★★ The Scotsman
★★★★ London Theatre Reviews
★★★★ The Reviews Hub
★★★★ The Wee Review
★★★★ Everything Theatre.
★★★★ The Stage
★★★★ London Theatre1
★★★★ All That Dazzles
★★★★ Broadway World UK
★★★★ Spy in the Stalls
★★★★ Varsity
★★★★ North West End
★★★★ The Student
★★★★ Within Her Words
"Donnachie is really terrific - her body turning and twisting, bending and swaying ... It’s quietly hold -your-breath gripping… Donnachie’s writing is unexpectedly beautiful… It doesn’t shirk what happened, but crucially it takes care of its audience too… This monologue dances with grace around some complex questions around revenge and forgiveness" - Lyn Gardner for Stagedoor.
“The script itself is fabulous. It deftly navigates difficult topics with both sensitivity and exquisite detail – no mean feat given the subjects involved. The show is both written and performed by Alexandra Donnachie, and her performance is as excellent as her writing.” - The Reviews Hub
“Andy Routledge’s direction combined with Donnachie’s writing and acting makes for a gripping play that deals sensitively with a difficult topic. I only hope more people get to experience it". - The Spy in the Stalls
I first encountered When We Died when it was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting which I’m a reader for. You can read our interview about this process here. Extracts were presented as work-in-progress for PILOT Nights (Midlands Arts Centre, 2019) and China Plate’s First Bite Festival (Midlands Arts Centre, 2019). It received further development as part of Pleasance Theatre’s LABS residency and with Serenity Sexual Health Referral Centre in Northampton.