illness

The War Inside, VAULT Festival

by Laura Kressly

Marnie promised herself she would never go for a poo in the school toilets, but her bowels have had other ideas lately. As she’s dealing with this embarrassment and worrying about her health, we get insight into her innards, where white blood cells are waging war on her colon. This is conveyed by an audio narration focusing on a brand-new cell getting to grips with their job, guiding listeners through the human anatomy and what happens when the body attacks itself.

Continue reading →

Midnight Movie, Royal Court

Image result for midnight movie, royal court

by Laura Kressly

Night can be a time of rest and escape, or mystery and danger where anything can happen. For people with chronic illnesses, vampires lurk in the darkness whilst those around you sleep. In the wee hours of the morning, playwright Eve Leigh seeks refuge online from her pain and corporeal limitations. Whilst it’s all too easy to condemn the downsides of an extremely online lifestyle, Leigh celebrates its ability to fly her around the world when her body lets her down. This millennial fever-dream of memories, horror stories and conspiracy theories blur the real and the internet’s dark corners as two actor/avatars and colour-soaked design convey the realities of a life punctuated by an uncooperative body.

Continue reading →

Mrs Orwell, Old Red Lion Theatre

https://theatreweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cressida-Bonas-and-Peter-Hamilton-Dyer-in-Mrs-Orwell-credit-Samuel-Taylor..jpg

by guest critic Simona Negretto

In 1949, George Orwell lived the final months of his life in University College Hospital due to a severe case of tuberculosis. Torn between an uncertain faith in a recovery and the consciousness of the approaching end, hoping to write again, he decided to marry Sonia Brownell, a young and beautiful magazine editor. The marriage, as the play keeps reminding us, was a sort of pragmatic contra-deal conceived more out of interests than of love.

Continue reading →

Thought to Flesh, VAULT Festival

https://i0.wp.com/mms.businesswire.com/media/20140820005682/en/428472/5/Granite_Employees_Participating_in_the_Ice_Bucket_Challenge.jpg

The ice bucket challenge did a lot to raise awareness of Motor Neurone Disease. But how many people who froze their tits off because their mates dared them to actually learnt anything about the condition? Probably not many, so other means of educating about the condition are needed. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, Thought to Flesh creators Nathalie Czarnecki and Gareth Mitchell worked with doctors and researchers to develop a work that shares the human side of MND in an episodic montage following a young woman’s life with MND.

Continue reading →