“A show that sticks unnervingly in the minds of its audience”
Based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short feminist text of the same name, “The Yellow Wallpaper” has been adapted by director/choreographer Caitlin Ort into a dance thriller at the Fringe this year. Following one woman’s descent into “female hysteria” after being locked in a room by her husband, the woman (played by the formidably talented Megan Ort) believes there is a woman living in the yellow wallpaper she sees daily.
To create a version of the text through dance is a particularly inspired and brilliant idea. All six performers come together to create a fantastically emotive version of the text, something universal, understood by all — even those who haven’t read the original. Every move is calculated and executed with wonderful detail, engrossing the audience in the very clear spiral of the psyche of the trapped woman, Jane. “The Yellow Wallpaper” doesn’t shy away from the difficulties the original text presents, both in terms of themes and in terms of staging.
The use of contemporary music to engage audiences in an older text is a clever one, though felt slightly jarring. While it worked to an extent for Jane’s unnatural, frenetic descent into madness, it pulled some of the tension from the show overall. Sometimes total immersion in the world of the text fits better: rather than trying to push a sense of relatability into the story, audiences would be better left finding it for themselves.
Regardless of this small creative difference, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a success and a triumph of a show. It refuses to shy away from the horrors of postpartum depression and women’s mental health; a narrative necessary to the Fringe and indeed across the nation. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a mesmerising show that gives you chills and leaves you reflecting long after the show has been left behind.
This show runs at Lime Studio, Greenside @ George Street until 29th August at 16:05. Tickets here.