Why a Galway playwright uses sheep as a metaphor to highlight surviving sexual violence
Finnish-born artist Jenni Nikinmaa sought help from Galway Rape Crisis Centre following her own personal trauma
From the soil of Galway, Finnish artist Jenni Nikinmaa brings the two together in a story that uses the metaphor of a flock to explore how one’s sense of belonging is reshaped after sexual assault.The production Sheep! is making its way through Galway arts venues, telling the story of a young sheep who was violated, and how that experience alters her place within her flock.A summer trip to Clare Island prompted Nikinmaa to reflect on a field of sheep, animals that are not distinctly beautiful or different from one another, at least at first glance. Until they open their mouths.The chorus of coos and roars drew her to realise how insignificant the animal could be from the human perception, when in reality each one sings its own song in its own key.Jenni Nikinmaa as the main character and producer of Sheep!Humans are not that different, she said. We move through life assuming we are all the same and were it not for the fine-tuning of our story’s voices that set us apart, we might remain unnoticed.“It started from the kind of being part of a flock as an individual, from the perspective of sheep.”The story is told through a main character named Sheep, who faces a new reality after being sexually assaulted.Ms Nikinmaa describes it as “weird” and “wonderful”, a comedic yet touching approach to telling a story known by many women all too well.“It is really dark, but it's also really funny, and you're allowed to laugh,” she said.The beginningSuch a significant story, and the desire to make survivors of sexual violence feel validated and seen, began in the mind of a stubborn young girl who had no idea art would become a lifeline.Ms Nikinmaa grew up in Espoo, a town outside Helsinki in Finland.When her classmates began to read at around age six, she decided it was not of interest and refused.“It took me a year to learn to read. Not because I couldn't do it, but because I decided I didn’t want to.”But the poet and playwright within her could not stay quiet for long. “I wrote my first poems in the third class. They weren't that clever, but they do exist somewhere,” she said. “Then I wrote my first play, it was about a forum that makes a song and builds up a band and then they perform. The whole school came to see it. They had to. There was no choice.”By her mid-20s she found herself thrown into the deep end as a new stage head at the renowned Alexander Theatre in Helsinki, Finland, where she said she thrived in the uncertainty it brought.“That's my favourite type of situation. It's the type of situation where I'm allowed to figure things out.”Burnout eventually followed, prompting her to search for something new and apply for funding from the Kone Foundation, which supports artistic research and development. That opportunity brought her to the University of Galway, drawn in part by the wild beauty of Inis Mór.“I love the arts in Galway,” she said. “I'm a bit neurodivergent and sometimes I struggle with humans, hence all the sheep. I don't know if I ever got into the arts scene. I've always been on the edges of it, I'm aware of it.”Personal experienceNikinmaa experienced sexual assault herself and knew first-hand what it was like to return to a community after such a turning point event in her life.“After what I experienced happened, it was pushed aside for two years. I was still part of the community and going everywhere and joining all these things and I would see the person who assaulted me around.”She did not initially tell her community what had happened, saying she “ran away”, but eventually confronted the person, only to face dismissal.
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“What really kind of made me angry eventually was that when I told him that it wasn't okay, he went ‘You were giving me the eyes and so there are no hard feelings.’”Finland native Jenni Nikinmaa has garnered Arts Council support and crowdfunded to get her play ‘Sheep!’ to Galway, and beyond.“That's not repairable,” she said. “It wasn't the actual assault, it was the fact that I was told my feelings are not valid, and nothing happened.”There is little closure in a response like that, particularly when trust has been broken.Gracefully, she acknowledged that “people make mistakes” and poor decisions. She contrasted this with another incident involving an inebriated friend who made a clumsy advancement and apologised sincerely, actively working to repair the situation.“At some point you realise that it's changed your world, and everything is different, but it didn't happen to anyone else.”“That's where the schism comes, that's where the hurt becomes a barrier between you and other people,” Ms Nikinmaa said. “Something like this can cut you off from the community and you feel like they have left you. It is really unfair, but it's always the person who has been assaulted who has to be the person who asks for help.”One character in Sheep! reflects this struggle, returning to friends and saying: “I don't really know how to be part of your view anymore, but I am here. I want to be there. I want to be here making these attempts of being with you in the same kind of space.”“That is how we build trust and community. The whole play is a gesture of figuring out how to be part of a flock.”Support from Galway Rape Crisis CentreFollowing the assault, Nikinmaa sought support from the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, bringing the story full circle as the organisation now works alongside the production.The centre is providing awareness training and support for both cast and audiences who may be affected by the show’s content.“The Disclosure Workshop,” supported by GCRR, “was amazing because it gives you the tools to be able to support others and to mind yourself within it.”Information and support leaflets will be available at venues hosting the production for those wishing to access the centre’s free services.“That's where I was signposted after the assault happened to me. I can acknowledge that I've gone to them and the service is amazing.”“They are so supportive and so understanding and so validating.”Promotion for Sheep! Photo by Andrea Spakova.“The rape crisis centre has this lovely term of vicarious resilience. You can have vicarious trauma if you listen to somebody else, but you can also have somebody's resilience.”“I think this play really has that quality of giving people some of that resilience I've built up, and other people have to, because it's not just about me,” she said.PerformancesSheep! was first performed in the living room of Nikinmaa’s home on Inis Mór, and has since been selected as one of the headline events at the 2026 Galway Theatre Festival.Following its Galway run, the production will travel internationally, beginning at London’s Greenwich Theatre in November before moving on to Greece.“I am proud of myself but the most important thing for me is that people experience the play. It's something I really want to share.”While performing in London is a milestone, she said the location matters less than the connection with audiences.“At the same time, if you invite me to a shed with trees and chairs in North Donegal to do this play, I will absolutely happily do it, and I'm going to be as proud of that as I am about the London gig.”Many of her projects, including Sheep!, have been partially funded by the Arts Council and Galway County Council, though securing funding has not been easy.Emily White, Raphaël Adams, Jenny Macdonald, Ciara Moloughney and Jenni Nikinmaa promoting the 2026 Galway Theatre Festival. Photo: Ciarán MacChoncarraige.“There was a time when I applied for Arts Council grants four times, only to receive four rejection letters.”She later turned to crowdfunding to support her work.“The one thing I've learned from this is I'm never, ever, ever, ever going to apply with a play I really love,” she said. “They have to be funded through crowdfunding, through other projects making money, through me working in exchange.”As the Galway Theatre Festival approaches, Nikinmaa prepares to bring a story of heartbreak and healing to the stage, one that follows an ordinary animal finding its way back to an extraordinary flock.Sheep! will premiere at the Mick Lally Theatre on May 6 at 8.30pm as part of the Galway Theatre Festival, before its London debut at Greenwich Theatre on November 24 at 7pm.Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme.
