‘People Piss In Here’ is a new production by upcoming Australian theatre company, Crowtown, which explores the experiences of those who suffer from and live with mental illness through humor. Launched in London, Crowtown explores inclusivity and diversity within theatre and society in a relatable and of- comedic way.
One of the founding members of Crowtown, and star of ‘People Piss In Here’, Isobel Marmion, had the initial idea for the show after a personal experience. “Our previous play we took to the Edinburgh festival a couple of years ago and one day I was out flyering, as you do, and I just had probably the worst panic attack I've ever had in my entire life and I ended up going to an alleyway to calm myself down and got stuck in the alleyway for four hours straight. I couldn’t move and I was too freaked out to phone anyone so I was just sitting in this dingy Edinburgh alleyway while it was chaos outside,” she explains.
The plot for ‘People Piss In Here’ resembles Isobel’s personal experience and is a surreal comedy tackling mental illness. It takes place in a women’s toilet cubicle on the third floor of an office block. “One of the characters is having a panic attack and there's no toilet paper which is making the situation much, much, worse. And so she has called one of her friends to come and bail her out and then there's two of them in the toilet dealing with her panic attack.”When writing, ‘People Piss In Here’, Isobel really wanted it to be funny so it would appeal to a wider audience, encourage people to talk about mental illness and hopefully have it more positively accepted among society. “[Mental illness is] something that still has a lot of stigma attached to it. People still don't talk about mental illness despite the fact that ... probably one out of two Australians are going to suffer from it at some point in time, in some form. Still people don't want to talk about it and they don't want to portray it in the media except in some kind of crazy, scary way.”
Writing about her personal experiences and mental illness has helped Isobel to work through some of her own issues. “We're all keenly aware about the importance of mental health. I've been suffering from bi-polar for a very long time now, so I've always been very aware of that, but working on something like this on a daily basis really brought to life how important it is.”
Approaching such a sensitive topic in this manner has the risk of possibly offending some members of the audience, but Isobel is assured that people who have suffered from mental illness will probably just find it funny and relatable. “I think that if anyone is going to get offended, it's unlikely that they have suffered themselves. I think that people who have suffered from mental illness themselves will relate to it more than anything,” she says.
Isobel will be there after every show to engage in discussion and open up a dialogue with her audience. “I'm going to be there every show so I'm more than happy to engage with people afterwards and have a chat to them. Which is a really important aspect of what we're doing.”The primary focus of ‘People Piss In Here’ is to get people laughing - to not take life too seriously. “I hope that primarily they'll have a really good time. It's a really good, fun show. Secondly, I really sincerely hope that they will afterwards see mental illness not as something to feel or to be scared of, and when they encounter it either within themselves, or with someone else, see it as something that just needs a bit of patience or a bit of support.”
‘People Piss In Here’ plays at Connection Studios in Parramatta, 14-16 May and in the Brisbane Valley Pool change rooms, 22-24 May.
