The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2021 - Issue 30

Lisa Ogun’ attended the enlightening and astounding R.A.T. production of NoMad, a one-woman performance, by the talented Nell Hardy. bitetheatre T heatre R eview NoMad F resh from its live premiere at Arcola Out- side (London) in October, Response Abil- ity Theatre’s (R.A.T.) inaugural show, No- Mad, was performed at Poplar Union, London, as part of its ‘A Mindful Mess’ festival of mental health and neurodiversity. The play exposed the challenges faced by the company’s founder, ac- tor-writer Nell Hardy, as she experienced home- lessness and mental health hospitalisation. Written and performed by Nell, and directed by Sandra Preciado, it was a raw, high-energy per- formance; full of passion, appropriate wit but hard-hitting truths which illuminate the system unbeknown to many of us that are distant from this sector of our society. Despite working on the peripheral of this sector, myself, there were so many aspects that provided me with a bal- anced diet of food-for-thought, served on a col- ourful platter, allowing for easy digestion. This true story took audiences into the chaotic mind of severe mental health trauma while ex- ploring the barriers to treatment and recovery in today’s under-funded and fractious health and social care sector. It asked the audience to consider how we define and treat ‘mental illness’ in people who have experienced system- ic exclusion and inspires hope for a better future for survivors in an aware, responsive society. Without giving too much away, from the get-go of Nell exploding onto the stage, thrusting her- self underneath a chair that was typical of those in a doctor’s waiting room or clinic - square charcoal-grey padded seat on a basic black steel frame - to the ending which brought you to a full circle of events and story, I was engaged throughout. With nearly every sentence performed (for want of a better word of ‘story retold’) to a dif- ferent physical movement, each reflective of the weight of the words being told, it was captivat- ing all the way through and never let up its en- ergy. The constant movements had me feeling as though I was witnessing the inside of a trau- matised unsettled mind but yet never had me feeling as though it was too much to bear. The stripped-back staging of a large square area of blue inter-connecting foam tiles, boarded by white light strips, and stage props of the chair with grey padded seating; an identical other, sans padded seat; and autumn leaves scattered across the staging area, to the backdrop of a dark heavy curtain, allowed the focus to remain on the actor and her actions throughout. How-