Folie a Deux (Salford)

Venue: The Lowry
Where: Salford

This new production has been developed by GreenEyedZero and the Lowry and we follow Patient D (Rachel Pollard) has selective amnesia. She shares accommodation with another patient (Sebastian Valade) who believes that he is actually dead. The relationship appears mutually beneficial but could turn into a Folie a Deux or shared delusion.
 
Pollard and Valade develop the production with director Bim Mason and take a suitably restrained approach to the sensitive subject. The growing affection between the patients is subtly and charmingly represented by a shared love of juggling whilst twisted acrobatics show the relationship under strain. Imaginative use is made of multi-touch screen technology – words burst from books and cascade around the couple – to show the dreams and feelings of the patients.  
 
The growing mood of apprehension is interrupted by a voice-over from a psychiatrist that is disruptive and too literal. The trauma suffered by the patients is better explained visually (by Pollard’s open and energetic performance and Valade’s hollow and haunted features) and symbolically by the skittles crashing when the couple move out of synch. The voice-over does not clarify how the relationship deviates from affection to mutual delusion. As a plot device the psychiatrist is unnecessary and as a character he is a poor doctor who favours one patient over the other.
 
This is an imaginative treatment of a disturbing subject with some powerful and shocking images slightly marred GreenEyedZero’s feeling the need to explain what has been shown visually.
 
– Dave Cunningham