Description
NEUROCHATTER
Written and Performed by Sara Jane Harvey
Dates: 9th & 12th October 2024
Time: 8.00pm
Additional info:
Mike, Elliott and Host happen to be the same person; they just don’t know it yet. Can they break through to reality or will they remain in fragmented fantasy together?
Recipient of this year’s ‘Keep it Fringe’ Fund & Winner of Brighton Fringe’s Outstanding Neurodiverse Performance award, One actor (S.J Harvey) embodies her three alter egos in this tragicomedy Psycho-Drama; recounting the fragmentation of her mind and what it took to confront her rupture in psyche.
During her time in therapy, S.J Harvey experienced heightened altered states of consciousness all with their own names, gender, wishes and wants. Her play Neurochatter focuses on three of those alterations in her identity:
‘Mike’ - an eccentric, scatterbrained academic,
‘Elliott’ - a defensive aspiring artist and
‘Host’ - the reluctant, True-Self hiding behind her two identities.
Together, they battle out their shared existence, venturing deeper to confront their ‘Shadow-Self’ and unwittingly begin an unravelling of the mind within the realms of dissociation. From rupture they stumble upon painful realisations, hurtling them towards the ultimate hope of repair. Can “Host” remember her name, or will she continue to hide behind her alter-egos?
NeuroChatter is an autobiographical portrayal of the artist’s lived experiences of being treated for a dissociative condition and post traumatic stress. She uses the methodology of comedic PsychoDrama to showcase trauma's impact upon identity and the inner workings of the mind. With many misrepresentations of mental health, Sara hopes to challenge that narrative with a more humanising approach.
Sara J Harvey is a writer & actor from Chester; is trained in Somatic Psychology, Applied Neuroscience & is a keen educator & researcher of Trauma Therapy, Autism & Dissociative Conditions.