Steve Walter, Steve Anthony & Deborah Blake at the Brighton Fringe 2017
Steve Walter, Steve Anthony & Deborah Blake at the Brighton Fringe 2017

Acute Psychotic Episode III – When the Change Came

A brief extract from the beginning of the show…

I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder twenty years ago, in 1997. Ten years later my story of breakdown and recovery was published in the book – FAST TRAIN APPROACHING… the show, the poems…

Ten years on, twenty years on. So why here, now? Because I have to, to acknowledge, to reflect, to learn, to move on, because I think, because I am – before I crumble, disappear. Because it happened, because it’s history, because it hasn’t gone away. Because they’re dead, Mum, Dad, because I seek approval beyond the grave…because it matters / because it doesn’t matter at all..!

Having recorded the introduction, the voice you heard today, Dad said, if he’d been younger, he would do the same, meaning the sharing, meaning the show. He died five years ago.

When the change came, the world turned over and laughed, the world turned over and cried. Cathartic to be open about personal experience, to bring it to life? To tackle the demons…in the hope that someone – that YOU – may take something positive away…

 

Live on Stage at the Komedia Studio Theatre – 4th June 2017