Our new production of Drowning the Innocence has sparked a new research venture, a collaboration between Cambridge University Literature, and Birmingham.
The trigger and beyond: occupying and addressing states of psychopathology in the theatre
Stimulated by _underscore’s exploration of theatrical fantasy through the Pierrot, this research project is interested in how different modes of theatricalization may enable an expression of text which affords possibilities for the audience, possibilities which involve experiential engagement with mental health
It looks at the relationship between creative realisation in performance, literary text, and spaces of therapy so contributing to research in English Literature, Psychopathology and artistic excellence in opera.
How do we grow in understanding and awareness and tolerance of mental health conditions that are often comorbid with other diagnostic conditions?
Education is huge.
So too is experience.
In the Pierrot find an experiential encounter with illusion, and the recurring coming down to reality. We invite the audience into the space, a space of beauty and fantasy, in order to experience this journey.
There has been much in recent literature and criticism around ‘trigger warnings’, and the relative duty falling to the creative team in the way they engage with their material. This raises questions of what it is to invite an audience into an artistic ‘safe’ space and where prior-education, perhaps in the form of warnings, shapes the ‘responsibility’ of the audiences encounter with the theatre space.
This research project challenges – not the content – but the terms on which this discussion is being had. By its very nature theatrical form can engage very deeply without harnessing a relationship with their audience even capable of triggering.
Trigger implies both a separatism, and indicates a causality; there needs to be the triggerer (the actor, stagecraft, text) and the triggered (audience recipients).
This research project, and creative exploration of the Pierrot works from the premise that trigger is the wrong word, for it is a matter of cause and effect, where we play in cause and affect.
Partnership between _underscore and Cambridge University English Faculty.