Having intended to debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2020, Tom Powell’s Surfacing has emerged from the pandemic to tackle themes of mental health on stage, with the show, directed by Stephen Bailey now playing at VAULT Festival.
Luc is an NHS therapist, practicing CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). The first scene introduces us to Owen, a new service user who has been waiting seven months for help. It explores the bureaucratic process and the hoops that must be jumped through to obtain help.
Owen’s story brings events from Luc’s past back to the surface, and forces her to confront issues she’s been trying to escape. When she goes for a swim and almost drowns, the world seems very different and Luc’s belief in the therapy she practices is tested as she experiences her own intrusive thoughts, delusions, and existential panic.
While many plays portray mental health as the physical manifestations; what we can see on the outside, Surfacing focusses on the internal effects. Luc’s own thoughts are voiced over and projected on to a screen, and the mice she once tested on in experiments also come back to haunt her.
Surfacing is produced by neurodiverse theatre company ASYLUM, so the performance is relaxed, with the audience invited to respond in whichever way suits them best. It is also fully captioned, and at some points audio described – particularly at the beginning, but then there are some key moments where audio description isn’t used, and it seems odd not to have extended this to the whole production.
The captions come in handy, as some of the lines are delivered too quietly even for hearing audiences. Rosie Gray and Daniel Rainford work well together, with Rainford taking on multiple roles. Both of the actors wear motion sensors, which appear to influence some of the video design elements, though the audience aren’t made aware of this, and it’s not abundantly clear what effect this innovative technology is actually having on the production.
Surfacing is certainly an intelligent piece of writing, approaching the subject from a different angle. Bailey’s claustrophobic production goes someway to helping the audience understand the journey Luc is undertaking, but it does feel like sometimes we are missing too much to fully appreciate the story for what it is.
VAULT Festival 2023 runs Tuesday 24th January to Sunday 19th March, full listings and ticket information can be found here.
