'After seeing a performance of Eat Me during April Fringe Week from the Guildford Fringe Theatre Company, I have a much better understanding of anorexia’, says Andrew Morris...
OUR VERDICT
Can you imagine being blind? Or having a morbid fear of open spaces? Or shaking in fear at the mere thought of getting on an aeroplane? Or not being able to eat, for fear of losing control over your mind, body and soul?
Hopefully, you haven’t had to experience any of these numbing deprivations.
But after seeing a performance of Eat Me during April Fringe Week from the Guildford Fringe Theatre Company, I at least have a much better understanding of the eating disorder anorexia.
Written by actor and playwright Suzanna Walters and based on her personal experience, Eat Me ‘is a hugely compelling insight into the seductive manipulation of this cruel and increasingly prevalent mental illness.’
On the intimate stage of The Back Room of the Star Inn, Anorexic Voice (‘AV’) – played by Suzanna herself – introduces us to her dear friends Libby, Kate and Jonathan. Their personal stories are brought to vivid life with insightful scenes from their younger lives.
Libby first meets AV as a young teenager, weakened by academic challenges at school and the sense that she’s being forced down a route she doesn’t really want to take, the feeling of being a ‘round peg in a square hole.’
Jonathan also befriends AV whilst at school, belittled by the taunts of more confident girls and not knowing how to fight back. Until he finds AV.
Both Libby and Jonathan spiral downwards into the compelling grip of anorexia, brief glimpses of hope extinguished by the menacing voice of AV, forever lurking at their emaciated shoulders. ‘I’m your friend. I understand you, they don’t.’ And a mental measure of control is at least regained by not eating. Until these fragile young people are both hospitalised and forced to take nourishment through tubes.
It’s only Kate who provides a glimmer of hope. She meets AV later in life than Libby and Jonathan, resulting in awkward times at college and embarrassing conversations about food with her new boyfriend’s parents. But fast forward a few years and Kate is counselling Jonathan and Libby on how to deal with their challenges.
‘But how did you learn to enjoy food again, how did you give up that control?’
Go and see Eat Me to find out how Kate expunged malevolent AV from her life, and can now offer support to others. But more importantly, go and see Eat Me to have a better understanding of how this increasingly prevalent illness can grab hold of young lives and how we might all be able to provide support to anyone who suffers from anorexia.
Thanks to Suzanna for writing such an important piece of theatre, to Claire Howes, Cameron McCormack and Stephanie Lodge for bringing Libby, Jonathan and Kate to painful life and to the Matrix Theatre Company for producing Eat Me.
‘Eat Me’ is part of April Fringe Week, with other innovative productions on all this week (April 08-14) in The Back Room of the Star Inn, Guildford. Check out the Guildford Fringe website for details.
Venue: The Back Room of The Star Inn, Guildford
Dates: 11-13 April 2019, Thu-Sat 7:30 pm
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