“An open mic night seemed a good way to talk about anxiety”

Locals Apricity return this autumn with Open Mic, a semi-autobiographical exploration of anxiety by Hattie Taylor.

Lottie is a singer, stepping onto the stage to perform at her local open mic night. Her audience watches helplessly as she is reduced to a shaking heap on the floor by a panic attack before she can even begin her performance.

Unable to sing, she talks instead – about her anxiety, about the reasons behind it, and about how it feels to constantly be at war with your own brain.

“When I first approached Hattie to write a show about mental health, she came back to me with the realisation that she couldn’t write something without drawing on her own deeply personal experiences of anxiety and depression,” explains director and producer Charlotte Turner-McMullan. “Lottie’s story is Hattie’s story, and the parts of the show that deviate from Hattie’s life are still the experiences of someone out there.

Apricity’s one-woman show uses an open-mic storyline to explore anxiety, stage fright and panic attacks

“I’ve had conversations I wouldn’t have been brave enough to have without Lottie to hide behind, and have become a little bit braver starting them as myself,” Hattie explains. “Sharing it has helped me realise I’m not alone, even when my brain tries to convenience me I am.”

An open mic night is an ingenious choice of setting for a piece exploring anxiety and stage fright. “We originally performed Open Mic last year in The Curfew pub in Bath, and we wanted to make the show as immersive as possible,” Charlotte explains. “Stage fright is something that many people experience, so an open mic night seemed like a relatable way into a conversation about anxiety. This time around, the show is less immersive, but we hope this will help people connect with Lottie’s story without feeling like they have no way of escaping if it gets a bit deep.”

The production won Arts Council England funding to incorporate mental health professional Samantha Day into the rehearsal and staging processes. “Samantha was brought in as Mental Health Advisor to help us find ways of staging moments of the show that might be difficult for some audience members to listen to, because they may have had similar experiences or know someone who has.

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“Samantha has advised us on staging choices to protect more vulnerable audiences and helped run focus groups with members of the public, theatre makers and mental health professionals to make sure we were doing justice to the messages of the show and help understand the experiences of others. She is also touring with the show, to be there for people who might need support or guidance during or after seeing the show.

What are the particular triggers for panic and anxiety in Lottie? “For Matilda’s [performer Matilda Dickinson] version of Lottie, the trigger is the fear of trying to perform and failing, or of losing the magic of something that helps her escape her anxiety.

“Sometimes though, as many people who have suffered panic attacks will know, these individual, seemingly small fears can become huge barriers, and often make themselves most known when there are other, heavier burdens weighing on your mind. Sometimes these things build up over time, or happen in the moment, or sometimes they have always been there, but anxiety amplifies them, just as they do for Lottie in the show.

“Lottie fears trying to perform and failing, or losing the magic of something that helps her escape her anxiety”

Charlotte and Hannah Mosettig started Apricity during their third year at Bath Spa University, in order to keep making theatre when they’d left. “Our shows have always tackled expansive subjects condensed into familiar, everyday settings, to make big impact in small spaces,” Charlotte explains. “Our last show The Breach, which took Shakespeare’s epic depiction of war and class conflict, Henry V, and crammed it into the living room of an east London flat. Open Mic is our first far-reaching tour and we hope that it will be the first of many.”

What do Charlotte and co. hope to send audiences away with? “We hope that people with experiences similar to Lottie’s will feel seen and less alone. Mental illness can be isolating and hard to explain.

“If someone who has felt these things and never recognised them for what they are, or maybe known exactly what they are but never been able to open up about them, we hope this show can give them the recognition or the vocabulary they need to seek help, or even just find the words to explain to their loved ones what they’re going through.

Open Mic Nov 22 & 23, The Room Above, St Michael’s Hill, 8pm, £10/£8 concs. For more info, visit apricitytheatreblog.wordpress.com

Read more: Changing mentalities around mental health