By Emma Ford
'A Piece In My Mind', performed by Ali Rowe, Elise Oliviea, Lucy T-K and Sophie Hyam, shows a game of chess, representing someone’s trauma and mental deterioration. This performance has you immersed from the moment you walked into the theatre. The threatening noise of the clock ticking with the frigid movements of Alice, played by Lucy, gives the audience a feeling of fear and curiosity. The group used the theatre company Frantic Assembly which really complimented the plot because making a movement-based piece showed the lack of voice for Alice and how she is judged based on her actions and can only communicate through aggression and recklessness. The movement was all very slick and helped connect the characters together. The relationship between the mother and Alice was shown in an emotional chair duet and emphasised the struggle between love and hate. When Elise joined in, it showed the battle between family members and how aggression and love are blurred in Alice’s life. The group’s repeated language about medicine and clinics may have been giving a message about how we need to actually talk to people to help them through their problems and not just rely on drugs. Technological advances in medicine have been great for the world but it has also made us dependent on drugs to cover our pain. The group was really successful in making the audience aware of the struggles of dissociative identity disorder, Lucy’s facial expressions and voice really showing her contrasting characters. We felt pity for her because we could see her fighting different sides of her personality. Repeating scenes in different lights also showed the different perspectives and memories of characters which built suspense until Lucy’s cathartic moment where she realises she is to blame for killing her mother. Overall, this was a very intense and moving performance and really brought to light the hardships of dissociative identity disorder and dealing with family tragedies.