99 Women’ was a large initiative by Innishari in 2016. Over 100 women from all walks of life participated in this play; they were trained into acting and dancing over 6 months, to present 99 compelling stories of women. More than 1500 people attended the show over 2 days.
About 99 Women
Originally conceived from a poem written in 2012 by Geneviève Flaven, Lives and Deaths of 99 Ordinary Women, this work emerged from a deeply introspective moment in the author’s life, a search to quiet the inner voices questioning, “How to be a woman? Which woman to be?”
The poem unfolded as a procession of 99 women, each summarizing her existence in a single, stark sentence, reminiscent of a police record. These fragments, though concise, carried the weight of untold stories and the unending complexity of femininity. The work did not seek to provide answers; rather, it illuminated that the question of ‘how to be a woman’ would always remain open.
The stage adaptation, 99 Women, brings these fragments to life, 99 distinct glimpses into women’s lives that celebrate their diversity, ordinariness, humour, and quiet strength. It is not a representation of all women, but an acknowledgment that femininity resists confinement to a single definition.
The choice of the number 99 itself is deliberate, imperfect, incomplete, leaving space for what remains unsaid. It evokes the unaccomplished, the evolving, and the infinite, a space that theatre makes visible, and perhaps, the very measure of freedom itself.
— Geneviève Flaven, Author
99 Women’ was a large initiative by Innishari in 2016. Over 100 women from all walks of life participated in this play; they were trained into acting and dancing over 6 months, to present 99 compelling stories of women. More than 1500 people attended the show over 2 days.
