'Slow tour' production kicks off at Lyth – Though This Be Madness by award-winning writer and performer Skye Loneragan
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Award-winning writer and performer Skye Loneragan continues her Scottish tour of Though This Be Madness – a fragmented portrayal of motherhood, sisterhood and experience of loved ones’ debilitating mental illness – at Lyth Arts Centre next month.
The show follows a non-conventional slow touring concept, designed by Skye to meet her every day needs as a writer/performer and mature-age mum who needs to prioritise and spend time at home. It will visit Lyth Arts Centre (22 September) before continuing to various venues across the country.
More info on this performance and booking tickets is at: lytharts.org.uk/event/though-this-be-madness/
Not all stories wrap themselves around a beginning, a middle and an end. New motherhood doesn’t afford the time for that kind of structure. Though This Be Madness is an inventive and darkly humorous story of many sisters that delves into the combined challenges of new parenting alongside loved ones wrestling psychosis and depression.
In this fractured fiction told through poetry and performance, we are introduced to a recovering mum bouncing on a Pilates ball in The Land of the Lounge Room, trying desperately to soothe her baby so she can finish her sentence and tell us this tale.
The 2022 live production will be shared as an evening performance, as well as an intimate and responsive performance open to parents and carers with babes in arms, designed to engage those who face barriers to attending live performances due to childcare or caring responsibilities.
Skye Loneragan says: “Though This Be Madness came about because I spent way too long on a bounce ball with a beautiful screaming baby and couldn’t tell the tale I had begun to write, or the one I was experiencing – postnatal and sleep deprived… and trying to piece together what was happening to my sisters, my mother, and those around me. So many loved ones are dealing with debilitating mental illnesses and I felt there should be a space to share the fall-out from that.
“This story is born of real experiences, but I don’t seek to represent them as universal. How we see things, how we grasp what we’ve been through and how we communicate that to one another is wholly unique. With Though This Be Madness I hope to connect with people who will wonder along with me what madness we all play out day to day.”
The performance is at Lyth Arts Centre on Thursday, September 22 at 7.30pm
