The Institute - Review

Act One, Cardiff University

19 June '12

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a subject normally associated with soldiers and warfare, but as a recognised condition it can hit much closer to home. The Institute is an original, thought provoking and moving play on the effects of PTSD on ordinary people.

The main focus is on Ben, a paramedic happily moving through life: buying a house, dancing with his girlfriend and socialising with mates, until he has that ‘one case’ that he cannot do anything about. He is unable to save Mair, a 15 year old girl trapped in a building. Unable to process the helplessness and sense of failure he withdraws from his life and friends. Not understanding his fragile mind-set and frustrated by their inability to help his friends snap, telling him to “Man up like the rest of us” that he is too proud to admit he has a problem. It isn’t just Ben who is affected: the character Jane was in a car crash and Sophie in an abusive relationship – both unable to process and cope with those moments in their lives they end up at the institute, test subjects for a cure. As those cure’s take place the events that cause PTSD in each individual are played out as audio – a clever device that pulls in background information whilst heightening the emotion and atmosphere, wrenching at the heart strings.

The play switches between the different lives affected by PTSD, the victims, their family/friends and the Institute staff who witness the heartache and find their own niches and coping mechanisms with their daily tasks. Using an unconventional device of cast members on stage at all times, the play gains a poignant second layer rather than falling into the usual trap of distracting the audience that this device can bring. It is the ‘patients’ of the institute that remain on stage at all times – they serve as a reminder of PTSD’s effects people.

A difficult subject to tackle, The Institute handles it with sensitivity. Supported by the Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Act One is presenting The Institute in Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival this August. A fantastic piece of theatre, I wish the cast and crew every bit of luck in the Fringe.

For info visit: www.actonetheatre.org.uk