Going Slightly Mad @ Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh
Although not overly original in it's approach, Going Slightly Mad draws attention to the topic of mental health in the UK without ever coming across as preachy or moralistic
Despite its provocatively eye-catching title, Going Slightly Mad proves to be a surprisingly deft account of mental health issues. This should not come as a surprise, perhaps, since writer and director Michael Hajiantonis previously spent time in an NHS psychiatric ward. Now an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, he's written this one-hour play based on his own experiences of mental health services in the UK.
The main character, Max (Lizzie Lewis), is the newcomer to a psychiatric ward, which she believes is all an elaborate set-up perpetrated by Blur’s Damon Albarn. Convinced that she's God, Max is a disruptive addition to the ward, but she soon gets to know the other patients, who all have their own issues and stories. James (Amelie Watson) is convinced that she is James Joyce, for instance.
Katrina Woolley’s set design is nicely minimalist and the acting is of a high standard, typical of Bedlam Theatre, with all the actors apart from Lewis playing multiple roles. Humour is used throughout, but the play also touches on darker themes such as suicide and depression. This is done for the most part sensitively, although not all the jokes pay off and the dialogue sometimes comes across as unnatural. At one point Leon (Levi Mattey), in a jokey aside to the audience, tries to refute any suggestion that the play is just a cheap knock-off of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This distracts from the characters and themes of the play, which is a shame, because the topic of mental health is important and very topical in 2019.
The play succeeds when it puts dialogue and plot aside temporarily and the characters use dance and physical theatre to portray more abstract emotions, such as the confusion and sense of entrapment that Max feels. True, raw feeling is conveyed in these scenes, which stand out from the play’s more jokey elements. It all ends without making any profound statement on mental health or mental health services, but perhaps this is asking too much of it. Although its approach is not particularly original, self-referentially drawing on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as it does, Going Slightly Mad draws attention to the important topic of mental health in the UK, without ever coming across as preachy or moralistic, and for this it deserves praise.
Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended, https://www.bedlamtheatre.co.uk/