Then This Theatre & The Yellow Wallpaper

In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman set out to tell a story that nobody wanted to hear.

In 2011, it’s the story that we - Aoife Spillane-Hinks and Maeve Fitzgerald of Then This Theatre - are determined tell.

Gilman’s seminal American Gothic novella 'The Yellow Wallpaper” charts a young woman's descent into madness during the Victorian era of medical extremes.  In September, we’re presenting the world premiere of our adaptation  at the 2011 ABSOLUT Fringe. We need your help in bringing Gilman’s frank and fearless story to life.

Locked in an attic room and cut off from the world, a young woman begins to obsess on the wallpaper, and what's waiting behind it. As she struggles to make sense of its twisting patterns, what she discovers draws her closer and closer to the edge. The Yellow Wallpaper wrestles with issues that remain incendiary in contemporary Ireland: mental illness and repressive treatment; marriage and power relations between women and men.

In contributing to our €2000 fundraising campaign, you will help to bring this visionary classic to the Dublin stage. Your support will cover rehearsal and production costs:  set and design expenses, insurance, publicity material, all ensuring that the show reaches its full potential.

You’ll also be jump-starting a new company founded by two acclaimed young theatre artists. Maeve Fitzgerald, recently seen at the Bush Theatre, London, in Tall Tales’ Moment, was recipient of the ABSOLUT Fringe award for Best Female Performer and the Irish Times Best Supporting Actress Award, both in 2009. Aoife Spillane-Hinks has recently directed Hamlet for Second Age, Boston Marriage for the Gate Theatre, and one third of Rough Magic Theatre Company’s Plaza Suite.

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” a one-woman show, is Then This Theatre’s inaugural production. We’ve assembled an all-star creative team: dramaturgy by Tanya Dean (Caligula), set and costumes by Alyson Cummins (Perve), lighting by Sarah-Jane Shiels (Phaedra's Love), and music by Irish Times Award winner Denis Clohessy (Sodome My Love).

Help us make this exciting and crucial project a reality.

Thanks,
Aoife & Maeve
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“Theatre highlights [of the 2011 ABSOLUT Fringe] include award-winning actor Maeve Fitzgerald in The Yellow Wallpaper…” – Irish Times

“You can’t keep your eyes off Maeve Fitzgerald...” – Sunday Times on MOMENT, Bush Theatre, London, 2011

 “Excellently raw Maeve Fitzgerald” – The Independent (London) on MOMENT, Bush Theatre, London, 2011

“Aoife Spillane-Hinks’s lucid, elegant production…” – Irish Times on HAMLET, 2011