Disturbing Shakespeare

Going Beyond Bedlam

Out of Character/Written by Paul Birch, Colin Benson & William Shakespeare/Directed By Paul Birch/Assistant Direction by El Stannage/Devised & Performed by Jane Allernach, Christie Louise Barnes, Adam Bell, Colin Benson, Sharon Benson, Lara Brooke-Hamilton, Ros Church, Rob Crowe, Nathan Fearon, Laurie Furnell, Christian Foster, Mark Gowland, Jenny Hughes, Wayne Hurton, Emily Ives-Keeler, Faye Jones, Anna Lewis, Lilly Luty, Sam McAvoy, Vicky Sharples, Phillie Turner & Emma Weston/Movement by Christie Louise Barnes/National Tour 2014/York Literature Festival 2015

After the success of Juliet Forster’s More Tales from Kafka performed at York Theatre Royal in 2014, Out of Character decided to, once again, explore perceptions of mental illness through another great writer.

Shakespeare lived near the notorious Bethlehem psychiatric hospital or ‘Bedlam’ as it was commonly known. Whilst ‘Bedlam’ has become synonymous with a negative portrayal of those with mental health issues it is no surprise that Shakespeare made some more subtle observations and depicts mental illness in many interesting and surprising ways within his work. His characters often refuse to acknowledge a clear line between sanity and madness. 

In As You Like It love is described as a form of madness that can be ‘cured by counsel’ instead of ‘whipping’ and, in doing so, not only highlights the use of cruel treatments applied in Bedlam but also suggesting that the divide between sanity and madness is often a social construct as well as medical one.

We have workshopped our own way through the plays along with our own experiences of contemporary ‘bedlams’ and wanted to invite you to the highs and lows of a disturbing world. From the storms of King Lear’s mind  to the sociopathic Richard 3rd. We also aim to creatively  ‘disturb’ the work of Shakespeare himself by adding our own devised comic commentary using dance and interspersing contemporary language with the original text. 

We invite you to go ‘beyond Bedlam’ and reconsider your own perspectives on mental health through this chaotic collection of some of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes and speeches.