What happens behind the scenes at organisations when they face allegations of (serious) cross-border behaviour? Trainee Emilia accuses a theatre technician at a well-known theatre company of rape. This piece is based on her story and her own research, anonymised for privacy reasons.
June 2022, beer, vodka, joints and a shared scooter
It is party time in a city park; students from the theatre school finish a joint project on the grass. With a group of about 50 people, they celebrate the success and the bottles of beer, wine and vodka they brought themselves go round. As do joints. Theatre technology student Emilia is also at the party. When she wants to go home, it turns out she has missed her last train. Richard, a senior student, offers her a place to sleep and a friend of Richard's also stays over. The three of them hit the road, together on one shared scooter, screaming with laughter. The three drink some more at Richard's parents' house and Emilia's last memory of that night is of her petting a cat.
"I wake up the next morning in his bed. I have a massive headache, where am I? I literally and figuratively feel wetness dripping off me, see Richard's back and think: no huh. This wasn't supposed to happen. Bloody hell. How stupid can I be, how could I have let this happen". Richard wakes up and, according to Emilia, dives on top of her. She pushes him away and says: "What do you think? When I engage in sex, I do it protected and because I want it myself. I didn't give you any consent at all".
The lodging friend wakes up in the room of Richard's (absent) sister. They have breakfast together. Emilia is disappointed in herself, she is ashamed, how could she have let this happen. "What all did he do to me? And why don't I remember anything? I have been tipsy before and then I always remembered something from such an evening".
Richard refuses an STI test. She gets tested, including for pregnancy, HIV and she tries as hard as she can to forget everything.
Limburg, beginning May 2023, on tour with Group X
Emilia wakes up broke in one of the tiny rooms At an inn. "Where am I? Is this a dungeon? I can't see daylight or a window anywhere, I feel like a prisoner. Groping around, I look for a light switch. And then cum seeps between my legs. WTF, holy moly".
Slowly it dawns on her, she is on tour with Group X as an intern. She worked at the theatre until midnight yesterday and after the performance they had a drink, on the bed in technician Richard's room. Together with Torsten who is Emilia's internship supervisor. She panics. OMG. It can't be? No matter how hard she thinks; no memories of the night surface. Nothing, nothing at all. The last thing she remembers is a beer on the bed. And another beer. She can still hear Torsten say: I'm drunk, I'm going to my own room. Richard and Emilia drink one more. After that, everything stops; no images, no memory. Only semen.
"I feel rancid and am in the shower for a long time. In my head, everything is raging. What has Richard done to me? To my surprise, I see that I tried to call a very good friend during the night. Idiotic that I don't remember. I sent him a Whatsapp and also sent a muddled app to Torsten, not making any sense. I even responded to an app from Richard about my work shoes that apparently stayed in his room. Shit shit shit shit. I feel guilty towards my boyfriend. Do I just live together for six months and then this. I'm not into infidelity. How could this have happened"?
Emilia had been working from 9 in the morning to 12 at night. She likes her engineering internship with the international theatre company, until after four months Richard is hired. She is soon wary of him as he keeps sending her his room number via Snapchat. His friend and technician Torsten and he ask every night if she wants to join them for a drink. She refuses, not wanting to drink with those guys. Still, she succumbs to the pressure and lets herself be persuaded that one day.
In the shower, she makes a decision; she has to finish her internship. Just under two more months and she will have her degree, otherwise she will have to repeat a whole year. She is going to act like nothing is wrong. "I can do that quite well. I managed it last time too. I have to get my diploma this year".
Richard, Torsten and Emilia's legs in Richard's room, just arrived after work. (Photo coor Emilia)
On returning home, Emilia goes to her GP who recognises the seriousness of the situation. He refers her to the Centre for Sexual Violence, which takes care of her by phone and, according to Emilia, wonderfully. She is at odds with herself, barely sleeping and having panic attacks at times. Pretending nothing happened at work is hardly possible even though, Emilia says, Richard constantly threatens her and gaslight (twisting the truth to make her doubt herself). She literally vomits as soon as she is near Richard. She is officially diagnosed with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.
No good sex, May 2023
Emilia had told everything to her boyfriend upon returning home. He catches her, and he sees, as he himself says, "at a murderous pace, my friend turn from exuberant girl with a loud giggle into an unstable heap of despair with suicidal tendencies. A patient". He is the first to tell her she was raped but Emilia cannot get her head around that word. 'I didn't notice any of it, did I?
Wherever in the country the company is on tour: Emilia no longer wants to be in a car or in a hotel with Richard. Emilia's boyfriend therefore comes to fetch her every night and helps the technical crew to dismantle the show. Side by side with other staff members and Richard, he lugs set pieces into the truck.
A source who wishes to remain anonymous marvels at what is going on. On the shop floor, this source heard from Richard himself that something had been going on in Limburg with too much booze on that particular night. Richard explained that something had happened between him and Emilia and that he himself was not happy about it afterwards. "'It hadn't gone well,' Richard literally said. He then boasted that the sex had not been good, Emilia had been disappointing. I thought: what a boast. Emilia had made advances according to Richard and she had not been happy afterwards either. But they liked each other because they had known each other from college. And said Richard to me, Emilia had always had a crush on him".
The source notes that Richard was uncomfortable the whole time. "I thought it was weird because Emilia's adultery story was going around in the company, while her boyfriend did come along every time. Adultery and a compliant boyfriend... I didn't get it at the time".
Theatre ban, 8 June 2023
On 8 June, production assistant Pjotr calls Emilia, just before the performance in North Holland, to say that her boyfriend is no longer welcome on the shop floor. He informs her that Richard feels threatened in the presence of her boyfriend. Emilia: "At that moment, something snaps in me, I was suddenly completely done with it. Now they have to hear my story. No matter how scary. I want a conversation".
A few days later, she tells Pjotr, upset, her story. In the Whatsapp conversations between him and Emilia, it becomes clear that he is extremely shocked; he advises her to call the external confidential advisor. Pjotr - not even a graduate himself - promises to inform the head of engineering and he also promises to arrange a meeting with director Klamar together with the head of engineering via Whatsapp.
There is never an answer from Klamar. Never a conversation.
Emilia ends her internship with a shortage of internship hours and a good rating.
A months-long silence from the company followed.
Baked pears, 12 June 2023
Emilia had gathered all her courage those days and also requested a meeting with her drama school internship coordinator. She tells her that she did not consent, that it is rape. She expresses fear that she will fail her internship and will be judged badly. Via Whatsapp, she receives compliments for telling her story: 'I am proud of you'. Emilia is referred to the guidance & support coordinator with whom she has a conversation. The latter reports it on the school's online information system. A striking report.
The internship coordinator and Emilia agree to raise the matter prior to the usual internship assessment interview with the company's head of technology. The conversation takes place at the theatre school on 28 June. The coordinator kicks off the conversation with Emilia's story and 'no consent given'. What the theatre group has done with that. Will do. The head of technology, according to Emilia, brushes it off (she already spoke to him on 16/6 and called it rape) and he soon wants to talk about the usual assessment. The school repeatedly asks what consequences this has for Richard and whether the company is still a safe placement company for students. That the head of engineering did not want to address these issues and Emilia's story, that school did not insist, felt as if someone was again not behind her.
Neither organisation writes a report of the conversation on Emilia's allegation, nor on the internship assessment.
A crucial conversation, almost 3 months later, September 2023
Because she does not hear anything for months, Emilia wants to know whether the theatre group's management got wind of what happened or whether her story did not get beyond the head of technology and production assistant Pjotr.
Through the fanfare, she learned that Richard had been offered a permanent contract by the management. This stings because she is stuck with the hot potato.
At X's office, under the smoke of the capital, on 11 September, Emilia's self-requested interview with director Klamar and head of production Mirjam, just back from leave, begins. Emilia breaks down and says she was raped by technician Richard, that she has no recollection of what happened to her that night.
Mirjam starts trembling and as tears roll she says: "Oh my god, that happened to me once at a theatre festival too. I woke up in the morning in the bed of a superior without a single memory". Klamar does not respond. Emilia asks if he knew about 'Limburg' and he says he had only vaguely heard something about two people who had slept together. And yes, he had also vaguely heard about Emilia's boyfriend being banned from the workplace.
This puzzled Emilia because the director was present every day. The exact, he says, he does not know about it. He promises to find out everything; he will ask Richard, technician/internship supervisor Torsten, production worker Pjotr and the head of engineering for explanations and report back to Emilia. Emilia ends the conversation with her considering going to the Vice Police to file a report against Richard.
The director says he did hear in the corridors that Richard and she had spent the night in bed together before so what is her part in this?
The report has been deleted
A few days later, Emilia suddenly receives a report of the conversation. This was not mentioned at the start of the conversation, let alone agreed to. Both Klamar and Miriam did not write in and the 'report' sent to them states a number of things not.
It does not say, for example, that they told technician Torsten they did not think he was suitable as an internship supervisor because of his young age. He and Richard had previously been challenged on their behaviour. It does not say that Miriam was already in doubt when booking the hostel: 'if only that goes well, such a young team alone in a hostel'.
When Emilia intimates that the fabricated report should not be used without permission, Miriam emails: ["... it may have been a misunderstanding, but at least it is clear that you do not give permission for the conversation report. Therefore, we have destroyed (deleted) the report and we hereby pledge that the report will not appear anywhere or be used for anything".
Vice police, 10 October 2023
Emilia hears, again, nothing more about the talks the management had promised to hold with Richard, Torsten, Pjotr and the head of engineering.
She reports to the Vice Police on 10 October. Emilia is given a month to consider whether she actually wants to go ahead with the report, anyway, it can be done later. Although they believe her, Emilia is disheartened. What the Vice Police tell her is that rape cases are notoriously difficult; in only 5% of cases, an offender is convicted. That she cannot remember anything from that night makes it extra complicated. The Vice Police tell her that lawyers can be sharks and that they take serious note that in criminal cases, the other side can go for character assassination. Could she handle that now?
Libel, defamation, damages
On 10 January, Emilia informs the company and the school that she wants her story to go to press. She is barely able to work; Richard is well looked after with a permanent contract. At the first written enquiries to 9 people involved and witnesses in the company, an intimidating letter from an Amsterdam lawyer with an expensive address follows. Emilia and the journalist face a libel and defamation lawsuit and damages from both the company and Richard. The chairman of the Supervisory Board emails that this "self-focused" must stop.
No one in the company will ever answer the questions but the lawyer writes a long letter with an interesting rebuttal.
The lawyer's defence. Did he know or did he not know?
The first thing the lawyer does is the deleted report from the wastepaper basket again and declare it valid. Yet another broken promise. Director Klamar had indicated in the conversation with Emilia that he had only vaguely heard something about the night in Limburg. However, the lawyer writes that the report to the trustee that Emilia made on 14 June was discussed by both the management and the Supervisory Board on 23 June.
A week earlier, Pjotr had already informed them about Emilia's story, judging by his Whatsapp messages. Moreover, by then the matter had also been discussed with the theatre school's stage manager AND the company's head of technology. When this contradiction is presented to the lawyer - being vaguely aware or actually knowing - it remains silent.
There is more remarkable in the lawyer's letter. He downplays Emilia's story by saying that Miriam, a month after her own 'unconscious' night with a superior, begins an affair with the man who 'raped' her.
One wonders who is throwing whom under the bus here. The lawyer a woman? Miriam herself? The theatre company a woman? Didn't Klamar himself already suggest in the conversation that Emilia had previously shared the bed with Richard and thus had a stake in the whole affair?
Such forms of victim blaming ('short skirt, drunk'), downplaying ('rape is not that bad, good start for a relationship'), framing, gaslighting and disqualification prevents many victims from reporting their stories. Above all, it also reveals something about the corporate culture at the company. Rather spend grant money on an expensive lawyer for fear of losing reputation than take a young woman seriously.
Protocols
Of course, the company has a comprehensive protocol for transgressive behaviour. So does the theatre school, and the spokesperson says they are going to change their procedures, without going into what that entails.
Klamar, his business director and the Supervisory Board are not following their own protocols and duty of care; were they hoping everything could be swept under the carpet? It is a mindset that needs attention in the industry. If as the source still tells us, it was quite normal for one trainee to supervise another trainee, what does it have to do with? Opportunism? Short term and money? Fear? Lack of staff? No moral compass? No empathy? Lack of good leadership from management and Supervisory Board?
We learn from a reliable source that the school is taking a group of students to a performance by the company. Although, according to the school, there are no interns with The Group at the moment, they are apparently not ruling anything out in the future.
Emilia indicates that all she wanted was: to be heard. Not just believing what he said but also some she said. "What happened to me is already traumatic but for everyone to deliberately ignore you is actually just as bad. When I am ready, I will push the report to the vice police".
"It can be tempting not to act on a report. But doing nothing is not an option. Employers are legally obliged to create a safe workplace for employees. That means they must always act on a report. In some cases, an organisation is legally obliged to report it, if there is behaviour that is subject to a statutory reporting requirement, such as rape. If the employer is negligent and an employee or intern faces sexual harassment during the internship as a result, for example, the employer may be held liable.
One of the most important elements in the reporting process is to always communicate well with the reporter. If an organisation does not do this, the risk is that the reporter's needs will be ignored, increasing the damage to the reporter and the organisation. The role of senior management and supervisors, including supervisory boards (BoS), is often very decisive for the culture within an organisation, and therefore for the proper follow-up of reports."
"It involves rape by a colleague. It took place during/after work.
This brings the employer's duty of care into the picture. Article 7:646(6) and (7) of the Civil Code explicitly prohibits (sexual) harassment. Paragraph 8 describes it as follows:any form of verbal, non-verbal or physical behaviour with sexual connotation that has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of the person and creating a threatening, hostile, insulting, humiliating or an offensive situation.
That this appears to be (has been) the case seems to be well established.
The employer has a duty to prevent such situations. Also because the employer must indemnify the employee against damages (Art. 7:658 BW) The employer must then prevent a psychosocial workload takes place, the latter in turn reflected in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Furthermore, the duty of care means that an employer must intervene if the employer knows, or should have known, that sexual harassment is taking place. This applies to colleagues among themselves. If it involves sexual harassment by an employee in authority, such as a superior, it is directly attributed to the employer. The employer must then take appropriate action.
A complaint should be handled expeditiously and confidentially. There should also be an adversarial process and the complainant should be informed of the outcome of the investigation."
Names changed
*The names Emilia, Richard, Torsten, Pjotr, Mirjam, Klamar and Group X are not real to protect the intern from a libel suit. The name of the anonymous source is known to the editors.
Questions were sent to nine people at Klamar's company, with the Supervisory Board being one. Three people directly involved at the theatre school were sent questions, as well as the board of the educational institution.
Response theatre school spokesperson
"We strive to create a safe and respectful environment for all our students, making all possible efforts to ensure this. In this regard, we met with the former student concerned on Friday 26 January. With the information currently at our disposal, we will evaluate the process followed to date in order to further tighten our (internal) processes where appropriate."
Response Companionship
The company says it is sticking to a libel case and does not provide any further substantive comment.
However, the Group, after Emilia requested the interview and had already suggested solutions like the Vice Police in that interview itself, did offer 3 options: mediation with her 'rapist', reporting to the Vice Police or an investigation.
Mores for victims
Mores is the independent support and advice point on cross-border behaviour for the cultural, creative and media sector. Anyone working or studying in these sectors who cannot or does not want to turn to the confidential advisers in their own organisation can call on the Mores confidential advisers.
- The number of reports Mores received:
- 2018/2019 43 reports
- 2020 95 notifications
- 2021 57 notifications
- 2022 365 notifications
Employers
On 13 March, the government committee on sexual transgressive behaviour and sexual violence, led by Mariëtte Hamer, will present a new Handbook Reports of sexual transgressive behaviour in the workplace.
NAPK and Social Safety Foundation for the Performing Arts
The Netherlands Association of Performing Arts, NAPK, is the advocate for employers in the performing arts. In 2022, they set up the Social Safety Foundation for the Performing Arts. Employers can have serious complaints about undesirable behaviour investigated.
Incidentally, the foundation points out that recently employees can also come forward.
Since its existence, 1 complaint has been received and settled. 1 investigation is currently ongoing.
Support for Emilia
Emilia is currently unable to work and is threatened with expensive legal action by the company. She could use any help. Donations via the button below will be made to her.
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