Development week – Arts Council funded
Ovalhouse 8th-12th July 2013
This was an initial workshop week on the first ever stage adaptation of Tony Harrison’s 1992 TV play Black Daisies for the Bride. It is a beautiful and poignant piece about Alzheimer’s that uses drama, documentary, verse and song to explore the lives of three elderly patients of the High Royds Hospital in Yorkshire.
Following the workshop we decided that we are actually going to create our own new piece about memory as opposed to adapt this exisiting play.
I strongly believe that mental illness needs to be talked about more openly. Following on from plays such as Really Old, Like 45 at the National and Melanie Wilson’s Autobiographer, I am hoping to explore these ideas in my own theatrical way using music, movement, dance and dialogue.
Workshop participants were:
Writer/adapter: Dawn King
Composer/ musician: Darren Clark
Designer: Ele Slade
Performers: RashDash, Paul Treacy, Judith Paris and Eva Magyar.