Asylum from Asylum (working title) is a play about two Prisoners in Norwich’s old “Insane asylums” – incarcerated for being poor and LGBTQ+, the play follows their time inside and their abuse at the hands of Doctor Galbraith. It features diegetic songs with piano accompaniment, through which the characters tell their stories of discrimination and suffering in the asylums. The project so far has been accepted for funding by the councils Arts Project, and a bid has been submitted to the Arts Council to write the first draft of a script and a prose accompaniment, and to put on a selected viewing for industry professionals which will be recorded and made into a promotional video.
The play is an allegory for the continued oppression of easily subjugated groups – those who live in enforced poverty, and those who belong to minorities – through the systematic abuse in health care and the justice system.
Song titles I have so far:
Down To Hell(sdon) – one of the asylums was (and is actually still running as a hospital) in Hellsdon.
True Manifest – of the “devil” in mental health difficulties.