The Walls @ Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013

  Carrie, a young researcher gets too close to the bone as she explores, while researching her PhD, cases of women wrongfully institutionalised in eras gone by. But surrounding her are women whose fragile mental health means the research is very personal, and Carrie struggles to maintain a scholarly detachment as she deals with her mother and an insistent new friend, Lucy.

The cast (from University College London Union's drama society) give some very believable performances in this new piece of writing. Sensitive and compelling performances come from the incarcerated women of Carrie's research, and from Lucy, who also suffers from mental health issues.

This play brings up the fascinating history of institutionalisation of women, both now and in the past: it captures the frustrating catch-22 that many women (and men) found themselves in at the time. Unsatisfied, misunderstood or abused at home, they were taken to institutions, only to find that the very protestations of sanity and innocence were exactly what kept them locked away, described as "irrational", deemed unfit for society and left to deteriorate in captivity.

The play gives a real voice to some marginalised groups in history and it's worth comparing how often words like "irrational" and "emotional" are still used to silence women today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQWfK_AKL7U

"VIRGINIA: It was magic she needed now. And so it was that she set off... in search of a particular quality of light. The one that could not be explained in syllables, sentences or ultimatums. The one she would find only in The Woods."  (Lisa Dillman, THE WALLS)