Well, part 2 of the ‘Asylum’ project was a huge eye opener for me in so many ways.

Ummm….where do I start!

The main thing that I want audience members/players to experience in this piece is their relationship with their mind. It’s quite an intimate journey really. I wanted to put them in situations where their minds, instinct and response is tested to see how much we can trust our brains, how different we all are and ultimately, how mental health disorders can make you look at the world differently. With my group of talented creatives we went about to create an experience that would give the audience a taste of that.

Of course, we went for all the extreme scenarios! We invited them into a variety of rooms including-

The interview room- where they were given the official test used to judge a patient’s psychological state. We also filmed them and projected their faces into the corner of their vision to heighten paranoia.

The laundry room- after we stripped you of your clothes and belongings we put you to work with a lady who was obsessive compulsive about her cleaning. She passed on her neurosis and panic on to you by demanding that you switch from one job to the other abruptly.

The cloakroom- a lady has fallen off her chair and she’s asking you to help her. What do you do? And how far will you go to comfort her?

You were then told to go down the corridors where you were surrounded by talking shoes- pairs and pairs of shoe, repeating their story.

And then into the darkness with just a mini wind-up torch to play a child-like game to test your inhibitions.

It then went on to some occupational therapy and a scene in a cell with lasers and an animal like caged man who had reached rock bottom and could no longer be saved.

And then you were thrown out!

There were lots and lots and lots of things that needed further development- the players felt they needed more of a reason of why they were there and what exactly their roles were, there wasn’t a through line story to follow and some things were so dark that you couldn’t actually see them!

But I’ve learnt so much. I had never before created a piece by responding purely to a space. Of course, we had our themes and research but I had never sat in a room and let it talk to me. I really enjoyed that, made me think visually (and not just in text) for probably the first time ever.

This idea needs further development, definitely. I’m discovering that there are so many elements to a LARP- some I know well and other I need more experience in.

But a great start- thank you Waleslab!

Here’s a photo of something that has come from this Waleslab- my appreciation of plants. Here is my very first herb and flower garden ever! And that is thank you to Jony, Dymphna and Marega for opening my eyes to it (amongst many other things!)

Let’s hope that I grow just like these!x