Uninvited was a participatory performance exploration that investigated the term “rape culture” and its various implications.

Uninvited was a performance made by Julie Tepperman and me. We used various reflexive approaches to think about what rape culture means and how we are affected by it and participate in it.

Performed as part of a residency at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2012, we experienced a lot of pushback from staff at the theatre as well as colleagues in the theatre community who were uncomfortable with the idea that a “rape culture” existed. Colleagues said things like “but what about when ‘no’ really means ‘yes’?” and sent us a ton of private messages on social media rejecting the existence of rape culture (many were encountering the term for the first time). We reflected on this in the performance, and included text from our own lives and interactions both in person and online to create the performance text.