MADHOUSE re:exit

MADHOUSE re:exit was DIY’s exciting collaboration with Access All Areas, a London-based company which creates award-winning, urban, disruptive performance by learning disabled and autistic artists. Click here to visit Access All Areas’ website to find out more about what they do.

DIY performers performed 11 shows as part of our large scale production which was performed as part of the Lowry’s week 53 festival and were an important and dynamic addition to the radical performance.

 Nick Llewellyn, Artistic Director, Access All Areas Theatre 

‘MADHOUSE re:exit’  built on the legacy of Mabel Cooper, a learning disabled activist and resident of a long-stay hospital. It was inspired by a refusal to be silent, and a history of being ignored.

A group of actors from DIY Theatre Company played Patient 36 – a resident of the imaginary “Paradise Fields” institution – who guided audiences on a disturbing but informative underground adventure to meet a goddess, a baby, a bird, an eater and a ghost – growling to be heard, and waiting for the revolution that is forever promised.

DIY members played the part of Patient 36 in 40 performances across 11 performance days. Over 500 people came to see the show.