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Harrowing journey through the nightmare of forced marriage
Sensational: Alex Jarrett

Aisha
Old Red Lion Theatre, London

THIS one-woman play by AJ reveals the brutal girlhood of the now 17-year-old Aisha who, married at 14 to a wealthy 51-year-old distant uncle, is kept locked in the house and subjected to years of abuse.

Addressing us from a small bed in the corner of Alys Whitehead’s eerily child-sized set, she narrates a story based on actual events that's hard to watch as she disgorges the memories of her violation in disturbing detail.

It's an account which raises uncomfortable questions about culpability and the violent consequences of reticence at a time when up to 8,000 children and women are at risk of being forced into marriage annually in Britain.

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