THREE women have spent decades wandering the wards and corridors of The Idiot Colony.
Locked away for their illicit loves, they relive their faltering memories amidst the drugs, brutality and restraints of the asylum.
This moving play will be at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, from February 3 until Saturday February 7.
The Idiot Colony is a tragicomic exposé of the forced incarceration of young women in mental asylums during the 1940s and 1950s, for crimes ranging from illegitimate pregnancy to lesbianism, anti-social behaviour, being abused, even for being considered 'too promiscuous' or 'flirtatious'.
An original new work of devised theatre, The Idiot Colony is a spectacular vision depicting human rights abuses — not in some far off totalitarian state, but in recent history in our own backyard.
Based on real life accounts, The Idiot Colony tells the story of lives forever destroyed for the crime of falling in love with the wrong person.
Detained, often on the orders of family members for the sake of saving grace from social scandal, some would stay within the asylum for the rest of their lives.
For the inmates of The Idiot Colony, the only respite is the hospital's hairdressing salon.
In this haven of intimacy, laughter and eighties pop songs, they find endings to the stories they have waited so long to tell.
Genuinely moving and humorous with beautiful visual imagery, The Idiot Colony is physically devised and performed by Fringe First, award winning actors/devisors, directed by award winning visual theatre artist Andrew Dawson, (Pandora 88, Absence & Presence) and written by Bafta and Rose D'or nominated Lisle Turner.
Redcape Theatre is committed to telling stories that matter, move and entertain using visuals, physical storytelling and original writing, The Idiot Colony debuted at the Edinburgh Festival 2008.
Box office: 01752 267222 or online at http://www.theatreroyal.com">www.theatreroyal.com