WE LIVE BY THE SEA // Patch of Blue

As I enter the theatre space and sit down a young woman asks ‘Who hasn't had their shoes touched?’ I raise my hand and the young woman scuttles into the row and touches both my shoes. This is Katy.

We Live by the Sea is a story where one of the people has autism but it is not about autism. This latest work by Patch of Blue Theatre Company weaves story and pathology without being definitive. It is a story of tenderness, hope, compassion, honesty and understanding.

Katy is diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. Her mother left the day she got diagnosed and her father left in search of ‘work’. This is a performance written as much in metaphor as the straight language of the everyday. It is a story of lost people looking for the things they lost, a girl with autism and her imaginary dog, her older sister Hannah and Ryan, a new boy in town escaping the city.

We are told Katy likes the truth and routines. We learn the days she has fish fingers for tea, Saturdays watching Ant and Dec, the colours assigned to each day and that she has a tank of sea water named Gerald, in fact all her possessions have names. Katy makes up stories to mediate the transitions through the moments in life and it becomes clear she has repetitive actions designed to self-soothe. Her imaginary dog Paul Williams helps her through difficulties and they share a secret language. She goes to mainstream school where she is bullied and lost her extra support due to funding cuts.

Hannah could have gone to university ‘if only things were different’. In this respect she is one of the many young people who have put others needs before their own. She is part of the estimated 350,000 young adult carers (18-24) in the UK. This number is steadily growing, with a significant burden falling on child carers, currently 166,000 in England alone. The impact of being a child and young adult carer can be wide reaching from being bullied, social isolation through to a lack of opportunities and poor health outcomes. Many young carers are not known to authorities.

Katy is unusual in that as a female she already has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder diagnosis at 15. Autism is a disorder with a perceived gender bias, in that more boys are diagnosed with it than girls. Whilst overall prevalence is increasing for both genders, more females are being diagnosed than ever before.

Historically women are often repeatedly misdiagnosed and mis-medicated before a successful diagnosis and treatment is employed. Part of the reason for this is the expectation of traditional societal gender roles and traits. However, psychiatrists were not necessarily looking for Autism so may have diagnosed, for example, the Eating Disorder manifest rather than the autism behind it. Finally women tend to be much higher functioning on the spectrum of the disorder, combined with a better propensity for ‘masking’ the disorder to ‘fit-in’ within the normative society. (AM)

We Live by the Sea is on at 16.30 at Pleasance Courtyard until August 29th. Wheelchair Access, Level Access, Hearing Loop, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets -  https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/we-live-by-the-sea

Gender and Autism: http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/gender.aspx

Autism in Pink: http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/autism-in-pink-helping-to-identify-undiagnosed-girls-with-asd/

The Lost Girls: https://spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/the-lost-girls/

Young Carers: https://carers.org/about-caring

PEOPLE OF THE EYE // Deaf and Hearing Ensemble

Deaf and Hearing Ensemble’s first major Fringe production – The People of the Eye – is an exploration of the development of a deaf identity from a number of different perspectives: from a deaf child learning to deal with microaggressions, to a hearing sister’s struggle to understand how difference might affect a person’s access to opportunities, to a hearing mother struggling with the reality that their child will need to live in a world in which there are challenges.

By focusing on the perspective of a child growing up in a hearing world, it might be easy to dismiss the ignorant comments faced by the central characters as the ignorance of childhood bullies, but Deaf and Hearing Ensemble’s focus is sharp: although such idiocy from strangers towards children, of course, does exist, the microaggressions, the stupid things that are said, are not limited to child perpetrators. They use humour to make their point, but their look at the chasm between hearing and deaf culture is a sharp rebuke of the ‘kindness’ and ‘goodness’ enacted by so many hearing adults.

People of the Eye is an origin story – a look at how the identity of a deaf adult might be built through a personal medical history, family interaction, and their peer group over time – and the incorporation of family videos demonstrates a strong and moving desire to understand one’s past (and thus, one’s present). But the political is never far away – much like in Nina Raines’ 2010 play, Tribes, People of the Eye shows that brief moment where a doctor convinces a parent not to teach their child sign language, referencing their chances of being ‘normal’ as improved by lip reading. While Deaf and Hearing Ensemble drop the comment lightly, it – combined with thoughtful performances in BSL and English, and a good chunk of light ribbing at audience members’ ignorance of BSL – resonates deeply. As with Touretteshero’s Backstage in Biscuitland which you cannot watch without wanting every show in the future to be a relaxed performance – one leaves People of the Eye understanding not only how much they really should learn BSL (or even basic BSL) but about the culture difference which can possibly be breached with a bit of effort on the part of hearing adults. (BL)

People of the Eye is on at 13.00 at Northern Stage at Summerhall until 27th August (not 10th, 17th, 24th). Wheelchair Access, Level Access, Closed Caption, BSL - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/people-of-the-eye

Francesca Ramsey on Microaggressions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPRA4g-3yEk

Touretteshero, Backstage in Biscuitland: http://www.touretteshero.com/2014/03/19/backstage-in-biscuit-land/

Nina Raines’ Tribes reviewed in The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/8078475/Tribes-Royal-Court-review.html

GUSSET GRIPPERS // Elaine Miller

Some shows are best defined by their audience. This is certainly true of Gusset Grippers, which combines the previously disparate forms of stand-up comedy and incontinence physiotherapy. Incontinence affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 9 men, so it is likely that some, if not most, of the audience had first-hand experience. Laughter can lead to leakage if you have stress incontinence so given the hilarity throughout, some of us were probably experiencing it during the show itself.

The audience effectively had an hour-long consultation with physiotherapist Elaine Miller. Not the first health professional to go into comedy, she is unusual in using her routine to do her job. Unlike Harry Hill, who left medicine to become a comic, or even Phil Hammond, who remains a GP, Miller uses this show as explicit health promotion - with the emphasis on “explicit”.

Rather than invite audience questions, as was the case in Brian Lobel’s Sex, Cancer and Cocktails, for example, Miller grants us anonymity in this clinical encounter. No one has to share their story - through experience with clients and her own incontinence following the birth of her third child, she knows what we want to ask, why we didn’t go to the doctor, and what mistakes we will make learning the most effective treatment: pelvic floor exercises.

And with an anonymous group rather than an individual client, she is free to exploit every rude joke going about our most intimate body parts and functions. That must be why there was a hen party in on the night I was there. A few years ago, a show called Incontinental avoided “all the obvious and cheap jokes” around incontinence according to a review in Exeunt; by contrast, Miller’s frank descriptions of pish, poo, sex, birth and pelvic anatomy elicited constant laughs of embarrassment and recognition. Her approach is, in many ways, vulgar - in terms of her language, yes, but her directness and practicality as well.

Also in the audience were health professionals earning credits towards their continuing professional development (CPD). CPD helps practitioners like physios and doctors keep their skills and knowledge up to date, and each year they are required to do a certain amount of learning beyond their formal qualifications in order to stay registered with the General Medical Council or the Health and Care Professions Council. Miller's show qualifies as CPD because it is rigorously evidence-based, but she is interested in another type of evidence, too: by following up with consenting audience members, she will assess whether comedy really is an effective tool for health promotion. In this case, I really think it is. (MR)

Gusset Grippers is on at 18.00 until the 28th August (not 10th, 17th, 24th) at Woodland Creatures (Venue 282). https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/gusset-grippers

Find out more about Gusset Grippers and Elaine Miller online: http://www.gussetgrippers.co.uk/  

NHS Choices has somewhat drier information about incontinence: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/incontinence-urinary/pages/introduction.aspx  

Dr Phil Hammond has two shows at the Fringe this year: http://www.drphilhammond.com/

Sex, Cancer and Cocktails, by The Sick of the Fringe’s very own Brian Lobel, is reviewed here: http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/sick-festival-brian-lobel-sex-cancer-cocktails

Kazuko Hohki’s Incontinental was reviewed by Exeunt in 2012: http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/incontinental/

The Health and Care Professions Council explains continuing professional development (CPD) here: http://www.hcpc-uk.co.uk/registrants/cpd/

More about CPD for doctors from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh: https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/education-support/cpd-scheme-guidance

THE BRAIN SHOW // Robert Newman

Robert Newman’s comedy routine in The Brain Show criticises research studies that he has encountered in popular science books about the brain and found wanting. He counters their arguments with a mixture of more robust science, appeals to common sense, and humour. The examples of “neurobabble” he uses in the show are not difficult to demolish, which means he does not have to get into scientific technicalities but can make his point before turning into a joke.

Neuroscience continues to be one of the areas of science most likely to be used and abused by people with something to sell, from self-help books to educational tools. It is often presented in a reductive way - “this part of your brain lights up when you're in love”. Newman’s debunking of specific studies challenges such a simplistic understanding of contemporary neuroscience. By deploying ‘common sense’ arguments, or returning to the 19th-century theories of Charles Darwin, however, he risks giving the impression that modern neuroscience is all on a par with the worst examples he can find.

Using brain imaging to ‘see’ what is going on in our heads is still a relatively young research discipline. While pioneering, it can also be speculative and open to criticism as researchers develop, challenge and hone their techniques. Debates around the application and interpretation of such studies have been going on - and increasing - within the field for many years.

The Brain Show encourages its audiences not to take at face value the claims made by and on behalf of neuroscientists. Those who are inspired not to dismiss neuroscience but to engage with it may also discover more of the best examples of the field, whether it's the growing use of brain imaging as a diagnostic tool or work informing and extending our knowledge of the anatomy of the brain. (MR)

The Brain Show is at 19:15 at Summerhall's Main Hall until the 28th August (not 15th) http://festival16.summerhall.co.uk/event/robert-newman-the-brain-show/

This recent Nature video discusses how brain maps are made, including a new one compiled using MRI data: http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/brain-map/index.html

PET imaging is being used to visualise amyloid plaques, a sign of Alzheimer's disease: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160524124241.htm

Quartz reports on flaws associated with functional MRI research in particular: http://qz.com/725746/a-deep-flaw-has-been-discovered-in-thousands-of-neuroscience-studies-so-why-arent-neuroscientists-freaking-out/

An older piece by Guy Kahane discusses the philosophical challenges brain imaging presents: http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2011/01/neurotrash-and-neurobabble/

This 2012 article in Nature set out issues around ‘blobology’ in MRI studies, and how researchers are making progress: http://www.nature.com/news/brain-imaging-fmri-2-0-1.10365

Debunking “neuromyths” in education: https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2016/feb/24/four-neuromyths-still-prevalent-in-schools-debunked

ADLER & GIBB // Tim Crouch and the Royal Court Theatre

Tim Crouch’s play Adler & Gibb looks centrally at society’s obsession with the story behind the story, showing something between an artist’s journey to understand her character and an invasive, even violent, emotional grave robbery. An actor, Louise, and her acting coach have come to the Grey-Gardens-inspired home of famed and reclusive artists Adler and Gibb, only to find the circumstances of their reclusion to be different then suspected. Louise is relentless – reminiscent of the portrayal of Capote in Miller’s 2006 film, waiting impatiently for his subject’s death to finish In Cold Blood – and a clear archetype for our obsession with celebrities (even hip, arty, off-kilter celebrities) and the expectations for all people to fully explain their comings and goings to just about everyone.

In his classic essay ‘The Death of the Author’ (1967), Barthes wrote about the problems inherent in allowing a writer’s autobiography to dictate how a piece of work is received by its audience. Such a practice exists today – we retrospectively diagnose Vincent Van Gogh or Chopin with any sort of mental health disorder, see Abraham Lincoln’s homosexuality in his policy decisions, we reread all of David Bowie’s final album as, exclusively, an extended pre-death ritual. Although such a practice might normalize different experiences through history – thus making new role models for us – there is also a danger in the disempowering idea that certain illnesses, lives, problems and struggles automatically lead to any number of specific outcomes. This is put into sharp relief in Adler & Gibb when Louise’s presumptions about the lives of her role models are discovered as wildly inaccurate.

 *Spoiler Alert. The following contains a spoiler for those yet to see the show, but the following is The Sick of the Fringe part*

When Louise realizes that her hero was not in fact in an abusive, reclusive relationship and, instead, someone slowly dying (perhaps of early-onset dementia, it’s not quite clear), the play resonates with the recent – and unexpected – deaths of David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood. But it is not only celebrities who sometimes crave privacy after the diagnosis of an illness; society’s inability to deal with bereavement, disability and difference in public space may make the withdrawal from public life by those dealing with illness themselves even more justified. The view that illness is something that one should be ashamed of, or the view that illness is something which burdens others, is individualistic and, in fact, ableist in its construction. While we don’t need to force Adler to share her illness with the public, we wish she would have known that we would support her however she needed. But then, of course, society has to do that work of not being ableist dicks…. And this might be a long time coming.  (BL)

Adler & Gibb, by Tim Crouch, 3-27 August (not 8, 15, 22), Summerhall, BSL interpreted shows available - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/adler-gibb

In Theory – ‘The Death of the Author’ - https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/death-of-the-author

Dr. Richard Kogan – Rachmaninoff and His Psychiatry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM097N2lNEI

On Capote and In Cold Blood - http://ocbookshoppe.com/blog/the-legacy-of-truman-capote/

David Bowie’s Death Is A Reminder of the Sanctity of a Private Life - http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/david-bowies-dignified-death-is-a-reminder-of-the-sanctity-of-private-life/

RSA Animates: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Smile or Die - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5um8QWWRvo