An Order of Lunacy at TheatreFest 2018

Production shot of Order of Lunacy

Last year I wrote my first drama An Order of Lunacy; an one act play set in 1842 Victorian England about the loopholes in the 1828 Mad House Act. In 1845 a reform bill was brought in to restrict unfair practices and aimed to reduce corruption. You can read more about the play here.

I submitted it to Isle of Man's 2018 TheatreFest competition for new writing. The year before I submitted House Proud and received the runner-up prize. This time I was very, very pleased to win it.

On October 5th the play was performed by Stage Door Entertainment for the Isle of Man theatre festival at the excellent Studio Theatre in Ballakermeen High School. It was a fantastic production that was directed and acted brilliantly. You can see how much time and care they took in production photos below. I can't thank them enough for all their hard work. Watching such a great performance made me proud of the script and I'm ain't ashamed to admit it brought a tear to my eye seeing my writing being performed by such talented actors in such a great production.

Cast & Crew
Ben Heath - Dr Maudsley
Andrew Halstein - Dr Prince
Neil Callin - Wilfrred Wright
Lisa Kreisky - Carrie Wright
Niamh Murdoch - Grace Wright

Directed by - Kristene Sutcliffe
Hair & Wardrobe - Jenny Green

Order of Lunacy in Manx Independent - 11th Oct 2018. Read here.

You can watch an interview with actors Ben and Niamh here:

Production Shots

Promenade Performance

On 7th October Stage Door also took the production to Grove Museum for two promenade performances at the manor house. 

As the play is set in a manor house it was an ideal location. It was the first time a play of mine has had a promenade performance and it was great experience.