ABOUT a year ago, Perth writer Suzanne Rofe was convinced she was suffering a heart attack.
It was in fact, the beginning of an anxiety disorder.
The confronting episode planted the seed for Rofe’s third independent full-length play, Gasp – which combines a surreal imagining of a 19th Century mental institution with the realism of today’s mental health system – and premieres at Northbridge’s Blue Room Theatre this week as part of its 21st birthday season.
“Coming to terms with the notion of it ‘all being in my head’ was extremely difficult and, for the first time, I started thinking about the notion of insanity and where the line is drawn between mentally ill and ‘normal’ people,” she said.
“That took me into psychiatry and into the very early treatments of lunatics, to Bedlam in London, and the way patients were treated in relation to normal, flesh and blood illnesses.
“It’s a massive, creepy minefield and a pretty horrifying field to research.”
Directed by Michelle Sowden (2009’s Alaska) and presented by Hook in Eye Theatre Productions, the play focuses on contemporary protagonist Grace who, when seeking help for her anxiety disorder, finds herself in an environment that proposes to have answers, but whose solutions feel like little more than a Band-Aid.
Alongside Grace’s struggle is another girl, a victim of a medical system from times past, whose experiences are frighteningly similar.
Rofe hopes audiences see in the play something with which they can identify.
“It was a real shock for me to discover how many people I knew had suffered from illnesses in the same category as mine, and how spectacular they really can be, while not crossing over into ‘serious’ cases,” she said.
“It’s the most common thing in the world to be anxious, or depressed, or panicky, and it’s still so unspoken or overlooked.”
The atmospheric design is the work of set and costume designer Monique Wajon, who won this year’s West Australian Screen Award for Best Production Design, and animator Nathan Mewett, whose shadow puppet animation is projected on stage to provide visually haunting silhouettes.
“Since there was a Victorian element to the script – there is a split timeline involving a young lady institutionalised at the turn of the century – I wanted to develop that and make it a more overblown, surreal visual experience,” Rofe said.
“The movie The Mysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels were really big influences on all of us.”
- Gasp is at The Blue Room from August 4 to 21.