The Walls @ Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013

UCLU Runaground return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a UK premiere of Lisa Dillman’s THE WALLS, a vivid and immersive play about women and mental health. Venue: SpaceCabaret @ 54 Dates & Times: 2nd-3rd August at 15.25 (Previews) 4th-11th August at 15.25 12th-17th August at 13.25 Tickets: £8 - £6 (Previews £5 - £4) Venue Box Office: 0131 5102387 Fringe Box Office: 0131 226 0000 @thewalls2013

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A Blog post on Wiebke

http://portraitcafeblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/the-walls-edinburgh-fringe/

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A Review from The F Word by Vivienne Egan

  Carrie, a young researcher gets too close to the bone as she explores, while researching her PhD, cases of women wrongfully institutionalised in eras gone by. But surrounding her are women whose fragile mental health means the research is very personal, and Carrie struggles to maintain a scholarly detachment as she deals with her mother and an insistent new friend, Lucy.

The cast (from University College London Union's drama society) give some very believable performances in this new piece of writing. Sensitive and compelling performances come from the incarcerated women of Carrie's research, and from Lucy, who also suffers from mental health issues.

This play brings up the fascinating history of institutionalisation of women, both now and in the past: it captures the frustrating catch-22 that many women (and men) found themselves in at the time. Unsatisfied, misunderstood or abused at home, they were taken to institutions, only to find that the very protestations of sanity and innocence were exactly what kept them locked away, described as "irrational", deemed unfit for society and left to deteriorate in captivity.

The play gives a real voice to some marginalised groups in history and it's worth comparing how often words like "irrational" and "emotional" are still used to silence women today.

  http://www.thefword.org.uk/reviews/2013/08/the_f-word_at_edfringe

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Flyering on the mile 

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Lucinda Gable: suffers from Bipolar disorder - Age nineteen at time of her first commitment.

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THE WALLS: making discussion about mental illness normal. 

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THE WALLS: making discussion about mental illness normal. 

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In every performance we ask you the audience to fill out a tag, to write the symptoms and the diagnosis. This could be on behalf of yourself, or a friend or family. We're trying to encourage people to talk about this taboo subject and by anonymously filling in these tags we hope that in some way it is helpful for you to talk about it but also to show other people that they can share too. Because, what is normal anyway?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQWfK_AKL7U

Trailer for THE WALLS made by Louise Wilkinson (co-director).

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Huge props to friend-of-the-show Tony Ryland for his reinterpretation of our publicity images!

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Just stop a moment and think this is yourself. On a bright, chilly day. Late in the month of October. It is early, quite early in the morning on let's say a Tuesday and you are about your customary duties, of course you are, because you have had no illness to keep you from those duties, so there you are in your very own kitchen doing your very own chores and in he comes, right into the room, this great hump of a man with a face the colour of uncooked meat.

Alice Chudmann

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Tabitha Chudmann Dodge, 25 when she makes her appearance. Alice's daughter.

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"VIRGINIA: It was magic she needed now. And so it was that she set off... in search of a particular quality of light. The one that could not be explained in syllables, sentences or ultimatums. The one she would find only in The Woods."  (Lisa Dillman, THE WALLS)

Painting is 'Four Trees' by Jean Lamb.