Provocative drama affecting real change in mental health treatment
Hearing Things explores the dilemmas of psychiatry from the points of view of patients, relatives and staff. Based on experiences of psychiatrists and patients, the ‘healthy’ and the ‘ill’, looking at how and if people heal and recover inside institutions.
Created using a unique collaborative process between patients, psychiatrists and mental health staff, Playing ON have drawn together the stories of those receiving and providing mental health care. Hearing Things is the result of that work – a process which has instigated real change in the lives of patients.
THEATRE AS TREATMENT
Playing ON aimed to demonstrate to hospital staff how theatre-devising techniques can be used to build rapport and create empathy among service users.
As part of the writing process, staff and patients at the Maudsley Hospital in south London took part in a drama programme in April 2014. Improvisations were used as material for the finished play, with clinicians and those receiving treatment swapping roles. As a direct result of these workshops, two patient’s progress was so great that doctors allowed their early discharge.
“Without a quantitative evaluation using any rating scales, what we know is that virtually all the patients who were engaged in the six-week workshop programme were discharged at about the same time and in that respect I think that the performance clearly accelerated their discharge. I know in two definite cases where I can clearly say the performance led to me discharging them.” Dr Dele Olajide, consultant psychiatrist.
This follows Playing ON’s core mission – marrying professional theatre and socially engaged practice.
Jim Pope and Philip Osment are joint artistic directors of Playing ON, who make quality theatre with communities whose voices are seldom heard.
Jim Pope is CEO of Playing ON. He is an actor, director and teacher. He has directed Hearing Things (which he will also perform in) and designed a programme of drama to bring together psychiatrists and mental health service users. He created the Playing Up programme for the National Youth Theatre, which delivers accredited professional drama training to NEET young people and has worked extensively in a range of settings such as prisons, psychiatric hospitals and homeless organisations.
Philip is a multi-award winning playwright, dramaturg and teacher. He has written and translated plays for a wide range of organisations including the RSC, BBC Radio and the Royal Court. His plays include Mad Blud (Theatre Royal Stratford East); WHOLE (20 Stories High) and Buried Alive (Hampstead Theatre).
CAST
Jeanette Rourke/ Hope, Janet, Grace
Daniel Ward / Innocent, Patrick
Jim Pope / Nicholas
CREATIVE TEAM
Philip Osment/Writer
Jim Pope/Director
Miriam Nabarro/Set designer
Becky Smith/Sound designer
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This is a story about Alan and Jane and their daughter Sarah. Alan and Jane have changed, but having a child always changes people, especially when your daughter’s a crocodile.
Crocodile is a dark comedy that combines pitch-black humour with an increasingly nightmarish sense of menace which promises to leave audiences both delighted and disturbed.
Joe Eyre’s debut play Crocodile, originally selected to open the first ever Pint-Sized, a quarterly of new writing that began at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2015 and now based at The Bunker, will run at London’s VAULT Festival 2017 from 1 February to 5 February 2017 in a venue used for the first time as part of this year’s festival: the Network Theatre. Joining Joe Eyre (graduate of Guildhall School of Music and Drama; recent credits include King Charles III (West End) and French Without Tears (Orange Tree Theatre and ETT UK Tour)) to complete the cast is Rhiannon Sommers (graduate of Birmingham School of Acting; recent credits include The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, Bloody Poetry and Anyone Can Whistle (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Butley (West End)).
Crocodile is directed by Matt Maltby, whose work as a director has been selected for Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of The Fringe. The show is also designed by Clancy Flynn (Trainspotting (The Vaults and UK Tour), Piece of Silk and Victorian and Gay (Hope Theatre), Portia (Theatre 503) and Valkyrie (VAULT Festival 2016)) and Odinn Orn Hilmarsson (Stone Face (Finborough Theatre) and Radioman (Old Red Lion Theatre)).
Joyous Gard is a brand new theatre company founded by siblings Joe Eyre and Beth Eyre (Wooden Overcoats (iTunes Best of 2015, Prix Europa 2016 nominee), The Awkward Ghost (VAULT Festival 2016), The Alchemist (Rose Playhouse) and The Waiting Room (Arts Theatre)) and producer Frankie Parham (Luce (Southwark Playhouse), DENIM (VAULT Festival 2016), Waiting for Godot (Arcola Theatre) and Spring Awakening (Edinburgh Fringe Festival)) with a slate of productions in development for this, its first, year. Crocodile is the company’s first production.
Joe Eyre wrote Crocodile and plays Alan. He trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and then began work as an understudy in the Wyndham’s Theatre transfer of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III under the direction of Rupert Goold and Whitney Mosery. Joe has just finished performing in a national tour of the ETT/Orange Tree Theatre production of French Without Tears, directed by Paul Miller. Other theatre credits include Three Short Plays by Samuel Beckett (Whispering Beasts, Old Red Lion), As You Like It (Creation Theatre), and Mojo (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, directed by Matt Maltby). Joe is a member of The Factory Theatre and Oneohone Theatre Company.
Rhiannon Sommers plays Jane. She trained at Birmingham School of Acting. Theatre credits include: Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Felicia in The Fatal Friendship, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and Dido in Dido, Queen of Carthage (Rose Theatre, Bankside), Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Brockley Jack), Rosalind in As You Like It (Creation Theatre, Oxford), Charley’s Aunt, Round and Round the Garden and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest (Frinton Summer Theatre), Olivia in Twelfth Night and Rosalind in As You Like It (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Agnes Ebbsmith in The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, Mary Shelley in Bloody Poetry and Anyone Can Whistle (Jermyn Street Theatre), Butley (West End), Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus (Place Theatre, Bedford) and Viola in Twelfth Night (Studio Tour).
Matt Maltby directs. Matt runs Pint-Sized, an evening of new writing attached to The Bunker. His work as a director has been selected for Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of The Fringe, and his writing has been performed at The Criterion, the Jermyn Street Theatre and the New Diorama. He works primarily as an actor, and is a member of The Factory Theatre and The HandleBards. Other work includes tours of Japan, the USA and UK.
Clancy Flynn is the lighting designer. She is a theatre designer and technician based in London. A New York native, she studied theatre at Trinity College Dublin before coming to the UK. Previous lighting credits include: Trainspotting (The Vaults and UK Tour), 2 Become 1 and Dorian Gray (King’s Head Theatre), Paper Hearts (Waterloo East Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Piece of Silk and Victorian and Gay (Hope Theatre), Portia (Theatre503), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pleasance Theatre Islington), The Awkward Ghost, The Signal-Man, Best Served Cold, and Valkyrie (VAULT Festival 2016), Fire Burn (international tour), Click (Ophelia Theatre), and Little Red Riding Hood (Gaiety Theatre and Swansea Grand).
Odinn Orn Hilmarsson is the sound designer. He is an Icelandic composer and sound designer based in London. Since graduating with an MA in Digital Film Production from the University of York in 2012, Odinn has been providing music and sounds for projects all over London and parts of the UK. Recently he has worked on Stone Face at the Finborough Theatre, Radioman at the Old Red Lion Theatre and on the podcast Hector Vs The Future.
Beth Eyre is a producer, actor, voice-over artist and director. She trained at Drama Studio London, and is associate producer of Mercurius Theatre Company. She is perhaps best known as the voice of Antigone Funn in the podcast sitcom Wooden Overcoats, for which she also produces the live shows, and for which she has just been nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role in the 2016 Audio Verse Awards. Theatre credits include The Awkward Ghost (Crowley & Co., VAULT Festival 2016), The Alchemist (Rose Playhouse), A Woman Killed With Kindness (Read Not Dead), The Devil Is An Ass (Rose Playhouse), The Waiting Room (Arts Theatre), Monster Hunters (Crowley & Co.), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival), The Massacre At Paris (Rose Playhouse), Gut Girls (Brockley Jack), Emma (Oneohone Theatre Company, Tristan Bates Theatre). Voice-over credits include Drayton Trench (Zut Alors), Hector VS The Future (Andy Goddard), Peace & War, Amok and Angel (Wireless Theatre Company).
Frankie Parham is a producer of theatre, film and comedy. Credits include the UK première of Luce by JC Lee (Southwark Playhouse, 2016), Oliver Dench’s One-ManHamlet (Théâtre National de Nice, 2016), DENIM (various, 2014-2017), Waiting for Godot (Arcola Theatre, 2014), sketch comedy double-act Scene Selection (various, 2013-2016), Twelfth Night (UK tour, 2013), Spring Awakening (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2012), Hamlet (UK tour, 2011), Henry V (OUDS/Thelma Holt international tour to Tbilisi, Georgia, 2009) and Предложение (Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal performed in Russian, 2007). He has also worked for the RSC (Revolutions season), Moscow’s Sovremennik Theatre, Cheek by Jowl, Shakespeare’s Globe (Globe to Globe season), Theatre Royal Plymouth, Sputnik Theatre Company, Whispering Beasts, Sovereign Arts, antic | face and the critically-acclaimed Oneohone Theatre Company.
To keep up to date with the latest news on this and many other shows, please followthespyinthestallson Twitter by clicking the image below.
Thanks.
Listing
Crocodile
1 February – 5 February 2017
6.30pm (no latecomers admitted)
VAULT Festival
Network Theatre
246A Lower Road
Waterloo
London SE1 8SF
Tickets: £12. A limited number of 2-for-1 tickets available for 1 February, 2 February and 5 February
