Gasp - Presented by The Blue Room Theatre and Hook in Eye

“You can’t imagine the amount of ugly underwear I see here… I think it’s important to dress like you might end up in Emergency, you know?”

Rushed to hospital after a heart attack scare, 24-year-old Grace is told she is the picture of health. The difficulty breathing, the dizziness and the tightness in her throat are all in her head – or at least because of her head.

Post-emergency, Grace seeks help for what turns out to be an anxiety disorder, only to find there is a lot more mythology than medicine when it comes to mental illness.

Alongside Grace’s struggle there is another girl from a Victorian institution – an era of change and experiment - whose experience is frighteningly similar.

Gasp uses animation and steampunk stylings to combine a surreal imagining of a 19th Century mental institution with the realism of today’s mental health system, posing the question: have we really progressed all that far?

Written by Suzanne Rofe. Directed by Michelle Sowden. Set & Costume design by Monique Wajon. Sound & Lighting design by Joe Lui. Animation by Nathan Mewett.

Featuring Nate Doherty, Michelle Francis, Natalie Holmwood, Kingsley Judd, Fran Middleton and Matt Penny.

4 - 21 August. 7pm Tuesday - Saturday. Preview 3 August. Meet the Artists 11 August.