THOUGH THIS BE MADNESS

“Once upon a time…

I don’t have time!”

In The Land of Lounge Room a recovering, love-struck, sleep-deprived new mum is bouncing on a Pilates ball desperate to soothe her baby, so she can finish her sentence and tell you this tale of many sisters.

Unable to reach Ophelia, her sister wrestling with a cataract on what Shakespeare calls the ‘mind’s eye’, she attempts to ‘stay on the ball’, Though This Be Madness, stitches together a fractured fiction told through poetry and performance.

Wondering what delusions we might all share, it questions the silent war many of us are waging – with little ones, with loss or with prams that don’t fold easily.

How can we nurture our collective sanity?

Feedback from audience members (see About for press/critical acclaim) :

“There were so many points of traction and heart-opening in your performance, more than I can sum up here, but the main one I’m pondering is around “LOIP”…(Loved Ones in Pain)…Thank you for making this kind of pain and process visible, I really appreciate it, and want you to know how important this work is. With gratitude.”
– Audience member, Dumfries & Galloway

“I really appreciated having something cultural to go to which was aimed at us parents but accommodated our babies- it’s depressingly rare!”
– Audience member, Edinburgh

“Basically it was about my life… the insight in that show was amazing… for somebody who has seen both sides, as a worker and as a patient, I think that was the most honest, actually complimentary almost, portrayal of mental health I’ve ever seen. I don’t know Skye’s background, I don’t know if she has actually been locked up with her rights removed, ahhhhm but if she hasn’t, respect to her because I don’t know anybody who could write something like that who hasn’t actually seen it from the inside.”
– Audience member, Dumfries & Galloway

  • “ I’ve found a friend”
  • “Very moving and I don’t have a child.”
  • “incredible performance. Realistic, humorous and poignant”
  • “very funny and sad”
  • “humorous. Light dark and deep. I related”
  • “Felt like a state like being a caught ball… gripping”
  • “confronting and strange in an engaging way.”
  • “could watch all day. Absolutely brilliant in such a unique way.”
Creative Scotland

Though This Be Madness should have toured Scotland as part of SMHAF in 2020 but due to the Covid-19 pandemic this wasn’t possible.

As a theatre show set in a lounge room, Though This Be Madness features a recovering mum who is attempting to tell you many tales of sisterhood struggles with mental health. When everything went online, SMHAF supported an experimental re-framing to see how it could be shared in other lounge rooms. You can see these here.

To stay up to date with where Though This Be Madness will be playing in the future, please follow us via any of the social media links below. Thanks.