GUEST BLOG: Director Emma Baggott Talks About the Exploration of Mental Health in THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA

Never in my lifetime have we spent so much time thinking about health and illness as we have in the past few years.

When knee deep in the lockdowns we knew what we were fighting. There was a tangible illness to defeat. We just had to find the cure - make the vaccine. Whilst isolating, another illness was dwelling - something less tangible. Something possibly less curable.

We are currently unaware of the long-term consequences on our mental health as a result of the social isolation, feelings of alienation and dissociation catalysed by the pandemic. We are a sick society. Who, faced with the cost of living crises and an impending ecological disaster, will become sicker. We exist in an epidemic of mental illness.

It feels like a pertinent moment in time to revive Anthony Neilson's A Wonderful World of Dissocia. A play which attempts to analogise madness - in the foreword to the play Neilson explains that it was an "attempt to theatrically represent the internal landscape of someone who was mentally ill."

Neilson doesn't diagnose Lisa with a specific mental health condition; there are, of course, parallels to be drawn to a manic or dissociative episode, but what Neilson does so brilliantly is create a tapestry of shared cultural anchors, a kind of "shared dreamscape" that enables access for all audiences into Dissocia. The key with this play is to know that the play reveals itself to an audience at the same time that it reveals itself to Lisa. In doing so we will align our audience's journey through the play with Lisa's. And hopefully, our audiences will reassess their own relationship with madness and reality.

The conversation and vernacular around madness and mental health has evolved since the original production of The Wonderful World of Dissocia. We are more informed and better equipped with a vocabulary that is better suited for purpose. Our industry too is evolving and is beginning to understand that the mental health and emotional wellbeing of its company and creative teams is paramount.

Whilst working on The Wonderful World of Dissocia we have been supported by mental health practitioner Anna Harpin, a leading academic on madness and art, who has been running weekly group sessions and one-on-one sessions to support the emotional wellbeing of the company.

It feels like a necessary requirement to support the company and creative team when striving to articulate the inner workings of a human being's mind on stage. We should also be interrogating best practice in the rehearsal room and offer time and space for discussion and exploration with a play that deals with tricky themes.

It is so exciting to be doing a show that explores the facets of the human mind in such a hugely theatrical way. In our production we are leaning into the history and architecture of Stratford East. The play inherently nods to vaudeville, panto, farce, drama, tragedy, tragi-comedy. It's a melting pot. And at a time when theatre is also hugely in crisis, it feels only right and necessary that we should be celebrating wholeheartedly the joy of theatre and all it's theatre-ness. And I believe Anthony Neilson's The Wonderful World of Dissocia is that.

The Wonderful World of Dissocia is at Theatre Royal Stratford East from 15 September - 15 October

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