HYSTERIA was a play commission funded by National Lottery via Creative Scotland and supported in kind by Lyth Arts Centre and Eden Court.
Written by Annie MacDonald, the play explores contemporary gender inequality in medicine through the lens of hysteria.
We have worked with nine emerging theatre-makers on this project. The play A Wound, The Rag and the In-Between premiered to a live public audience in Inverness on 4th May 2024. Read more about the performance here.
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Synopsis
Dip a rag in the spring,
Knot it to the tree,
And in its decay,
Comes the remedy.
The flowing waters of the Clootie Well connects people with one shared hope: to heal.
Two Highlanders, Lubna and Niamh, are drawn into a mystery from over a century ago. In a place meant for wellbeing and recovery lies a grave. A death at the clootie well.
Whilst unravelling the tragedy of this sacred site, they must contend with modern mythologies of medicine which have inextricably transformed their lives. Together, they unpick the oppressive structures in healthcare that have shaped the treatment of different bodies and minds across the centuries.
HYSTERIA deals with two narratives; one which explores the devastating mistreatment of women’s mental health during the Victorian era, another which interrogates those same attitudes towards women’s health and medicine today.
In a study, published in January 2022, it was stated that women are 32% more likely to die after surgery by a male surgeon than a female surgeon. We were amazed that, even now, male-centric medicine has such profound and devastating impacts on contemporary women. Annie has been commissioned to write a full-length play exploring these inequalities.
Content warnings: death, mental illness, medical abuse, suicide.
Play Commission
Annie MacDonald was commissioned to write the play.
Annie is being supported by two Creative Mentors: Sara Shaarawi and Matthew Zajac as part of our aim to create opportunities for Highland-based emerging artists.
Annie MacDonald is a Highland-based writer and co-host of the hit podcast Stories of Scotland. She has made audio drama and documentaries for the Edwin Morgan Trust, the Royal Society of Literature, and Northword Northern Periphery and Arctic programme. Annie trained in traditional storytelling with TRACS.
The Mentors
Sara Shaarawi is a playwright from Cairo, living in Glasgow. Her work has been performed across Scotland and the UK, as well as Egypt, Uganda, Germany and South Africa. Her theatre credits include: Niqabi Ninja (IAP / Hewar Theatre) and Sister Radio (Stellar Quines / Pitlochry Festival Theatre).
Matthew Zajac has worked as an actor for 39 years and has directed and produced for several theatre companies. He has been the Artistic Director of Dogstar Theatre Company since 2004, directing 8 shows.
Rehearsed Reading
Eden Court Theatre kindly hosted the rehearsed reading of Annie’s first draft on Friday the 20th January, 2023. A reading of the play was performed to an in-person and online audience of emerging artists, industry professionals, and educational representatives from UHI and Inverness secondary schools.
The performers for this reading were recruited from applicants who were successful to audition and interview for the HYSTERIA commission and R&D, and UHI students.
Rehearsed Reading Performers
Morna Ross
Morna Ross (she/her) is an emerging creative practitioner based in and from the Highlands. Morna mainly works with Eden Court Theatre and Framework Theatre Company, and is really looking forward to working with Vivid Roots Collective as part of ‘HYSTERIA’. Recent performance credits include ‘Revolting’ with the Wonder Fools Positive Stories Youth Board and ‘All About People’ with Grampian Hospitals Art Trust.
Vicky MacRae
Vicky is a theatre-maker and workshop facilitator from Inverness.
Since graduating and moving back to the Highlands in 2020, Vicky/) has predominantly worked with young people through local companies such as the Florians Theatre, L Dogstar Theatre and Eden Court. Further afield, she has participated in the renowned Young Writers Group at the Traverse Theatre, and is a member of the Wonder Fools Youth Board.
Vicky is thrilled to perform with Vivid Roots again in such a poignant project.
Jessica Deigan
Jessica is an actor, writer, activist, and oil-paint artist from the Highlands. She interweaves her craft with interest in the global rights of Women, and class division. She is currently in the final edit stages of her directorial debut as a Festive Artist in Residence at Eden Court; ‘High – Land’ is a screenplay which tackles the drug war in Scotland and the cost of living crisis.
She has participated in youth theatre and am-dram through NTConnections, Highland Youth Theatre, Eden Court, and (currently) ‘The Wedding Singer’ with IMT. Jessica is a student on the HND in Acting at UHI.
Patton Moralis
Patton is an emerging trans actor in the Highlands, studying Acting and
Performance at UHI Inverness.
His most recent roles have been Naomhan the Wulver in The Ghosts of Campfire Stories in Nairn Arts Festival 2022, and his continuous work as an actor in the BOOtanics (2021 and 2022). His creative practice is based in diversity, social issues, and bringing awareness on such matters. He is delighted and looking forward to working with Vivid Roots Collective on this project.
Research and Development
The HYSTERIA R&D ran from the 12th-16th September 2022 at Lyth Arts Centre. The R&D was run solely by emerging artists, most of whom were Highland-based. Matthew Zajac of Dogstar Theatre also supported the R&D as a creative mentor.
The purpose of the R&D was to explore the themes of HYSTERIA through play and improvisations, producing live stimuli for the commissioned playwright.
Production Team
Laura Walker – Creative Producer
Laura is a Highland-based emerging director/producer and is a company director of Vivid Roots Collective. Her practice is predominantly in Feminist theatre and she is currently wrapping up a MRes in Creative Practice with UHI Shetland, exploring phenomenological Feminism through practice
as research. Laura has worked professionally with Surge, Framework Theatre, Dogstar Theatre, and NTConnections.
Keira Smith – Creative Director
Keira is a company Director of Vivid Roots Collective and an emerging theatre maker based in the Scottish Highlands, with experience in directing and writing. She achieved a BA(Hons) in Drama and Performance from UHI Inverness in 2020 and has since worked on the Highland Youth Arts Hub Creative in Your Community, Highland Pride, Scottish Youth Theatre, and recently assisstant-directed on Dogstar Theatre’s recent production of Nightlands as part of their Arctic Winds project and again at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Sophie Wink – Artist Liaison
Sophie is a Highland-based emerging writer whose work has mostly centred around autobiographical and Feminist narratives with a focus on multi-roling and using solo voices to explore wider issues. Sophie is a company director of Vivid Roots Collective and manages the artists’ journeys on projects. She is a UHI Alumna and has participated in writing opportunities with SYT and Traverse Young Writers.
Performers
Kirsty May Hamilton
Kirsty May Hamilton is an actor and theatre maker whose inter-disciplinary practice weaves poetics, live art and video projection in searching for a Feminist visual language. Most recently, she performed in Penkiln Burn art-film PAST, created by Bill Drummond and Tracey Moberly. Other recent work includes a digital adaption of Flesh (Paisley Art Centre), and Dancing at the Edge of the World (REPLICA, Berlin) a dance-theatre performance generated alongside ‘poetic machines’ reimagined with Feminist Al-design.
From Ballachulish, Kirsty May is delighted to be working with fellow Highlanders on this project.
Rowan Heggie
Rowan is an actor, writer and visual artist based in Dundee. A 2021 graduate of Acting and Performance at Dundee and Angus College.
Rowan’s current performance practice is based in improvisation, clown and physical theatre. They use humour and the unexpected to target issues surrounding class, gender, and illness, creating a theatre of community, joy and action. Their recent work has included street theatre with a strong protest ethic, and collaborative, movement- based gallery performances in Beth Dynowski’s Songs For Work. Their creative work has been delivered in youth arts, education, and science communication.
Megan Lovat
Megan holds a Masters in Contemporary and Classical Text from RCS and is a proud alumni of UHI Inverness and PASS at Edinburgh College.
Megan has a passion for ensemble-based theatre and is keen to apply her knowledge of devising and group work to every project she undertakes.
Her recent credits include: Julius Caesar (Company of Wolves), The River Goddess of Clootie Well (Spirit of The Highlands), Out of Water, Cymbeline & Twelfth Night (RCS), Little Lamp & The Night Before Christmas (Eden Court), among others. Megan is delighted to be back in the Highlands and working with Vivid Roots Collective on this exciting new project.
