Playwright Lamorna Ash has been making a name for herself at Oxford University and her latest work reinforces her reputation. Circleville, Circlevalley is a claustrophobic one-hour piece, set within a drama therapy workshop run by Ellen.
Ellen hopes that her clients will explore their problems through drama. Her workshop is a safe environment in which they are shielded from the world. Through voicing and acting out their problems, they will, she hopes, come to terms with themselves and so be able to safely operate in the dangerous world outside.
Kerry lives within a fantasy moonville where she is loved and protected. Joe endlessly rides buses, counting the Tescos and other corner shops and supermarkets. Sal has distanced herself and her daughter Flo from the family of her dead husband.
Progress for any of them seems limited until Eddie (Sal's brother-in-law) storms into a session and demands to be heard. Out of the anger, fantasy and obsession there comes a very moving one-to-one between Eddie, Sal and the imagined Flo; finally a broken relationship begins to be healed. This is no happy-ever-after piece: Kerry and Joe still prefer the fantasy and safety of the therapy workshop to confronting their real problems, but it offers hope for those suffering from broken relationships and damaged mental health. It is a funny and violent and emotionally unsettling piece. My wife and I (we both have experience of working in the world of mental health) loved it. It was a shame there weren't more people in the audience to enjoy it.
Thanks to all the cast for a gripping hour of drama-therapy drama.