A play about the stigma of mental health written by Vici Wreford Sinnott, Creative Lead for Cultural Shift and local playwright, will be performed here next week before heading out on a national tour.
Butterfly has been written and directed by Teesside-based playwright and artistic director Vici, and is a humorous yet dark one woman drama that challenges stereotypes.
The central character, who is named Beatrice and played by actress Jacqueline Phillips, sits in isolation waiting for the results of her compulsory mental health assessment.
She is joined by Boudica and Butterfly who both help her to travel in time to revisit important historic developments in the stigma of mental health past, and also to revisit sites in her own past, reminding her of who she is – a Bay City Rollers and David Bowie superfan.
Vici is a playwright, disability rights campaigner and artistic director of disabled led theatre company Little Cog based in Saltburn. She is also the Creative Lead for the Cultural Shift project, and wrote Butterfly to challenge people’s perceptions about disabled people making contemporary work in the arts.
Speaking about the play, Vici said: “Butterfly is not about suffering from, or surviving, a condition. It is about history, stigma, about misunderstandings and misrepresentations. It is about setting the record straight.”
The play returns after an initial preview performance last year.
Butterfly will open at ARC on Thursday 26 January and will then tour at the following venues:
31 Jan & 1 Feb – Stratford Circus, London
2 Feb – Lincoln Drill Hall
7 Feb – Exeter Phoenix
9 Feb – The Old Fire Station, Oxford
15 Feb – Harrogate Theatre
9 Mar – Arts Centre Washington
16 Mar – Square Chapel Centre for the Arts, Halifax
21 Mar – Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne
25 Apr – Canada Water Culture Space, London
26 Apr – Theatre in the Mill, Bradford
Tickets can be booked for Butterfly at ARC by clicking here.