Dr Hills Casebook - blog 5

The fifth instalment of Robert Fairclough’s blog about the Change Minds project which unites history, mental health, creative writing and theatre.

Showing how all-pervasive Zoom culture is becoming, last week I attended one of the rehearsals for our play, in Bungay, from my home in Lowestoft. It was a very odd feeling to begin with, being a virtual guest at the session in a laptop positioned, as Darren pointed out, “next to the sanitising hand gel.”

I needed have worried, though. Once the novelty of being a remote spectator wore off, and the actors began working, I was absorbed by the creative process that took this session’s Norfolk County Asylum patient Joseph Henry Scott from page to performance.

Laila France, the director, oversaw a warm-up session with the actors Charlotte, Evie, Ben, Clare and Russell – in which they played a game of ‘Bish Bash Bosh’ and howled like dogs at each other, as you do – before the work began in earnest. Scott was Becky’s patient and she read the actors her lengthy biography of the unfortunate man, who was in the Asylum for eight years and suffered from being “morbidly religious”, as well as being depressed and bewildered.

The whole session was fascinating to watch. Becky’s research was meticulous: the actors listened attentively, quietly absorbing details such as Scott being “constantly in and out of bed at night, crying”, the strange, confining practice of him being “rolled in blankets”, and debating details like early straitjackets and the kind of swear words used in the 19th century. Becky also speculated that Scott’s religious delusions may have been triggered by living in the shadow of his dead elder brother, who shared his name. 

With Laila handling the stage directions, the actors then read from Bel’s script. It’s still a work in progress, as she stated (from behind me, or rather the laptop), which she felt needed “a good, cheeky song about being mad.” As the rehearsal – which was full of energy and laughter – progressed into performing the scenes Bel had written, Richard and Becky were asked for their opinions on how they thought the unfolding drama matched their research. Richard was more than happy, while, amusingly, Becky considered the scenes “quite accurate.” Bel, meanwhile, remarked that she was very impressed with the actors’ first run at what she’d written. Following that, Laila directed the actors to improvise the role of the attendants who worked at the hospital. An ex-mental health professional herself, she rather cleverly devised the scenario of a staff room, where the staff discussed Scott with a mixture of “humour, profanity and compassion.”

I don’t know if that will be kept in, but the idea of a staff room seems like an excellent way of linking the past with the present, as 19th century mental health institutions must have had similar communal areas to those in the 21st. It’s another example of how the play should be imbued with contemporary relevance, so that patients like Joseph Scott, who was so delusional “he felt he was being watched from on high”, are given a fictional voice that resonates with a modern audience.

 Roll on the next rehearsal, remote or otherwise.

'Robert Fairclough writes on a variety of subjects, including mental health and popular culture (sometimes both at once). He has written six books, contributes to magazines and websites, and writes regular blogs for The Restoration Trust. He can be contacted on robmay1964@outlook.com, and his website can be viewed at www.robfairclough.co.uk '