Former Lord Williams's School pupil brings powerful, thought-provoking one-woman show to prestigious London Theatre

After a successful run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival a former Lord Williams’s School student is bringing her one woman play to a prestigious London Theatre.

Jenna Fincken who grew up in south Oxfordshire and attended the Thame school produced a ‘thrilling’ play investigating coercive control.

Called, ‘Ruckus’, Jenna has secured a four-week run of her critically-acclaimed play at Southwark Playhouse in London.

Starting today (5 October), she will act out the play which she also wrote until the final curtain call on .

Ruckus, “Beautifully balances on the edge of uncomfortable”, according to a review in The Scotsman.

“It is a precise, pressure-cooker production of a thrilling and thoughtful one-woman play”, says a five-star review in The Stage.

As well as receiving glowing reviews at the world-famous festival, Ruckus was also shortlisted for the Edinburgh fringe Popcorn award, being named as one of three finalists.

The judges for this year’s awards included Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson, the Olivier award-winning producer Francesca Moody, the portrait artist Jonathan Yeo and the comedian and writer Jack Rooke.

The unsettling play exploring the suppression and destruction caused by coercive control is inspired by the daunting and real stories of real women.

Ruckus is produced by Wildcard’s Joey Dawson who also produced the highly successful Manic Street Creature at this Year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

It takes the audience through the sensations of being at the beginning of a coercively controlled relationship, this tense and thought-provoking drama will raise questions about women’s vulnerabilities to psychologically violent relationships within today’s patriarchal society.

Also, It explores how easy it is to be trapped in a cycle of threats, humiliation and intimidation and the system of power in our society which enables and protects the actions of perpetrators.

Jenna plays Lou, 28, a primary school teacher who is wholly aware the audience are watching her. She wants to show them exact moments in her relationship, breaking down the progression of coercion as Lou journeys from freedom to being trapped.

In putting together such a challenging, thought-provoking play, Jenna used accounts from leading charities such as SafeLives as well as the work of leading sociologists, investigative journalists and researchers tackling domestic abuse and coercive control.