PERFORMANCE

- THEATRE -

13 Jan 09
THE IDIOT COLONY, Exeter Phoenix, Bradninch Place, Gandy Street, Exeter, Devon EX4 3LS, 01392 667598, www.exeterphoenix.org.uk
8pm, £9/£7
RedCape Theatre present a play created after two years of research and interviews with former patients, mental health workers, hairdressers and others that lived and worked at St. Margaret's Hospital, Great Barr - known locally as The Idiot Colony… The performance follows the stories of Joy, Mary and Victoria as they try to remember their past and forget their present. Locked away as young women in a 1940's asylum they seek solace and friendship inside its hairdressing salon. As the radio plays the latest 80's hits, they re-live war-time affairs, illicit trysts and childhood secrets. With their recollections come strains of Glen Miller tunes and Rita Hayworth movies. The discord of the asylum tells a different tale; ritual humiliation, forced drug experimentation and long, lonely nights. The story of each woman's struggle to survive incarceration results in three starkly contrasting endings.

RedCape use highly visual, physical theatre and nostalgic comedy to entertain and challenge their audiences.