‘Don’t Let Me Die Before Sunday,’ has just had its Lambeth Fringe debut and is a manifestation of writer Elspeth McColl’s personal experience with medical negligence, the anxieties of theatre making, and the challenges of discussing mental health.
Skin and Blister theatre company is made up of three women, who bonded over a shared sense of humour and desire to make theatre that is important to them.
It is not long into the show that this shared company ethos comes to light as we are swept into Aoife’s world of A&E wait lines, charity Facebook groups and GP’s who fail to take her seriously.
The stage was largely stripped of any set or props, apart from two chairs placed in the centre, as sound effects and a projector were cleverly used to set the scene for the audience.
I found this use of sound effects worked particularly well during Aoife’s consultation with her doctor.
Each time the actors went to say the word ‘anxiety’ a loud bleeping sound was played, effectively muting them, and censoring the conversation.
This communicated the often-taboo nature of the condition, and illuminated our inability to have these challenging conversations about mental health.
At the heart of Skin and Blister theatre company is an intention to make work that sparks these tricky conversations and to create a community through theatre.
By bleeping out the anxiety buzz word, they highlighted our issues with confronting mental illness, as the company urge the audience to engage in these discussions.
As Aoife receives her diagnosis, sounds that almost mimicked a washing machine were played.
This really effectively communicated the feeling of being told such life-altering news, as all the words jumbled into one and Aoife was left completely overwhelmed and unable to process the information.
The sound effects accompanied by Ella McCallum’s captivating performance underpinned this moment and the barrage of emotions that come with being told such news,perfectly.
McColl described her own experience with her health not being taken seriously as terrifying.
She said: “I was so scared to exist in my own body.
“I was often told it was ‘just anxiety’ which floored me.
“The word ‘just’ is so dismissive, when it is so clear that anxiety has a massive impact on so many people every single day.”
Her experience inspired the show and is mirrored in the moments where Aoife has to confront medical professionals who fail to take her seriously.
However, these moments of serious dialogue were undercut by hilarious sketches of arguments on Facebook groups, and WhatsApp conversations between the company.
DArcy Brown’s direction seamlessly saw the play transition from emotive scenes in the hospital wait room to highly entertaining conversations about charity fundraisers.
This took the audience on an emotional roller-coaster as I was immersed into Aoife’s world of chaos, which saw me laugh out loud at times and then in a simple lighting change, or sound effect, be left sharing her anger and disillusionment towards the health system.
Throughout the one hour run time the audience share the humour, frustration, distress, and emotional turmoil born out of living with this condition.
‘Don’t Let Me Die Before Sunday’ marked the closing week of the Lambeth Fringe.
This year saw a rebrand for the Fringe festival in a bid to increase inclusivity and diversity across a month of theatre, comedy, and cabaret.
Skin and Blister commented: “The growth in the diversity of venues is so impressive in the first year of the rebrand.
“The team’s intentions to really try to cultivate more space for so many variations of performance in the borough is so exciting.”
This rebrand has helped company’s like Skin and Blister to showcase their talent and helped to further enrich Lambeth’s vibrant culture.
