Are You Being Serviced?

Are You Being Serviced? (previously titled ‘The Medical Room’) is an audience-interactive theatrical response to the Epstein Files and, more specifically, the abuse perpetrated by doctors connected to Epstein, paid off handsomely to reveal the private medical information of his victims and administer procedures.

The performance involves a woman (Marcie Rob) and a host of a dinner party. The audience are invited to ‘dine’ with Marcie - or, rather, from Marcie - as their host guides them through starter, main and desert courses which allow the audience to ‘feast’ on her medical histories.

Our audience will pick from a menu, Marcie's medical history, with the actor playing Marcie responding in real time to the appetites of her audience and slowly exposing to them the exploitation and abuse which has dominated her life - medical and otherwise. We move from fractured bones, to coil implants, to STDs - all the while uncovering the human stories behind the cold prescriptions and procedures. It acts as a fragmented kaleidoscope of injustice which the audience are very much complicit in. Guiding the show and providing ‘entertainment’ for her guests, our dinner party host exposes the darker side of male power-abuse and how she and so many came to profit directly from the exploitation of these women.

“In a duologue by Ellen Bannerman, Sadie Pearson, Laurie Ogden and Bex Bowsher, there’s a remembered account by a woman who becomes trapped in Epstein’s mansion and speaks of vacating her body as she is abused (“I was told it was only dancing, only massage”).”

- Arifa Akbar, The Guardian

This performance was first conceived as part of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s All The Rage response project to the Epstein Files which brought together women and non binary writers to create a guerilla-theatre project, taking over the spaces of a central London office block this June. The piece was originally staged as a 20 minute excerpt in this project, script in hand and with only one course of each dish provided.

Are You Being Serviced? was conceived by Ellen Bannerman and co-written by Bex Bowsher, Sadie Pearson and Laurie Ogden.

Ellen Bannerman:

Ellen Bannerman is a Scottish playwright and actor with a BA in Acting from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Most recently Ellen was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwrighting, and is currently on attachment with Theatre 503 as part of their 503 5 scheme.

Bex Bowsher:

Bex describes herself as a generically northern playwright and director based in Newcastle. She is a graduate of the BBC Writers Room, Graeae’s Write to Play and the Regional Theatre Young Director’s Scheme. Her plays have been performed at venues around the UK.

Laurie Ogden:

Laurie is a northern multi-award winning writer and performer whose work has been shortlisted for the likes of the Women's Prize for Playwriting, Women in Theatre Lab and The Bruntwood Prize.

Sadie Pearson:

Sadie is a Mancunian multi-award winning emerging writer whose work has been recognised by prizes such as the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, BBC Voices Scheme, Popcorn Award (x BBC), Alpine Fellowship and more.