|
|
The psychiatry drama "Girl, Interrupted" by Susanna Kaysen was our third play. The authoress describes in this book the chaos and the confusion that dominated her own life in 1967 during her 18-month lasting voluntary stay in a psychiatric institution. short summary "Is my life a dream or is it reality? Do I have feelings? Am I sane or am I crazy?" These questions interrupt the young life of the 18-year old Susanna Kaysen in 1968. Surviving a near overdose after taking an entire bottle of aspirin, Susanna reluctantly signs herself into Claymoore, an in-patient mental hospital for women. Her doctors diagnose her with "borderline personality disorder", a condition characterized by violent mood swings, chronic depression and self-destructive tendencies. While living at Claymoore, Susanna is forced to search for and find the one thing needed to continue her life in the outside world: herself. This task proves to be rather difficult in the company of her fellow patients: a pathological liar, an aggressive sociopath and any number of sexually confused and self-destructive women. However Susanna finds a piece of herself in each of the girls at Claymoore. She experiences confusion, disgust, love, hate, friendship and separation. All of these are facets of her, which help her down the path leading to self-discovery and the real Susanna Kaysen. realization To give the audience the impression of beeing inside a hospital, "medicine" was given out at the beginning of the play. Furthermore we used parts of the auditorium as a stage. |
cast of characters |
Susanna director |
|
Sarah Stücken Viola Herzig-Danielson |
|
|
|
