Polyphony // Ola Aralepo

There can't be too many shows at the Fringe attempting to pioneer new forms of psychotherapy. A psychotherapist ('among other things'), Ola Aralepo claims his clients' personal narratives are becoming more humorous, even as stand-up comics are drawing more on their own mental health issues to make comedy. So he frames his show as an experiment in 'stand-up therapy'. He is at pains to point out that it is neither stand-up nor therapy; instead, he asks the audience to act as a 'compassionate community', a phrase often used in the context of end-of-life care but here meant to encourage empathy and care as Aralepo tells his story.

He shares events in his life that he believes are responsible for his own neuroses. He offers a Freudian definition of neurosis - patterns of thought or behaviour that everyone has and that we fall in to when emotionally stressed. Key to his experience seems to be Bowlby's attachment theory, which described the importance of early childhood in a person's subsequent mental health, in particular the first relationship a child forms - usually with its mother. Aralepo was born in the UK to Nigerian parents, who placed him with a white foster mother. When he was 6, he met his birth mother for the first time when she took him back to Nigeria. Then, as a young man, his father sent him back to the UK. These experiences led to ingrained self-doubt, a lack of belonging, and what Aralepo describes as voices - a polyphony of voices - undermining his self-confidence.

Attachment theory was further developed by Mary Ainsworth, looking at children's different responses to care-givers and strangers. In Aralepo's story, he is often surrounded by strangers, from his birth parents and the Nigerian classmates who called him a Britico, to his neighbours back in the UK whom he cannot socialise with. And yet here he is now, standing up and sharing his story with an audience of strangers. Is the aim to help us or himself? It is not entirely clear. The show culminates when the two sides of the audience are asked to sing two different phrases from Aralepo's neurotic voices at the same time. Our voices quietly commingle, ending an evening of gentle introspection.

- Michael Regnier

Links relevant to this diagnosis:

Polyphony

Your Personality May Affect Your Vulnerability to Mental Health Problems - British Psychological Society Research Digest

Freud and Defense Mechanisms - Simply Psychology

Freud's Light on the Neurosis of the Mighty (1939) - Guardian 

Bowlby's Attachment Theory - Simply Psychology

Mary Ainsworth and Attachment Theory - Child Development Media

Compassionate Communities Launches Initiative in East London - NSUN Network for Mental Health

GREY MATTER // Spasm

Neurocriminologist Adrian Raine is a controversial figure in British science. He researches the biological basis of crime and asks questions that others shy away from. If you could use a brain scan to predict someone would become a psychopathic murderer, for example, shouldn’t you do that?

Raine’s thesis is the inspiration for Grey Matter, a play set a few years hence in a secure neurotreatment centre. This facility is where young men will find themselves if they fail their 18+ test – an assessment of their likelihood to commit murder, which is now compulsory since a mass school shooting. Scanned, probed and treated, they can get out if their test scores improve – but the prospects are grim in the desolate, violent environment, and meanwhile, their real lives outside move on without them. 

The parallel drawn by the show’s creators to today’s young offender institutions could hardly be clearer. 5000 young people are currently detained, often with little hope of rehabilitation and sometimes at the risk of extreme violence, as a Panorama programme earlier this year showed.

Yet, if there is a way to predict crime, do we have a moral duty to do so? The film Minority Report explored such questions, using the psychically-gifted precogs to enable authorities to catch perpetrators before crimes had been committed.

Raine’s precogs are the brain scans of offenders, on which he indicates enlarged or damaged areas he says could have predicted their behaviour. However, as many opponents point out, in modern social neuroscience, brain scans are notorious for their pretty colours and poor statistical significance.

Not even Raine’s discovery that his own brain had structures similar to his psychopathic test subjects made him abandon his perspective. His own wayward behaviours seemed to fizzle out in the environment of a new school at age 11.

But others may not be as lucky. Grey Matter shows us the possible risks we face if a government technocrat decides to adopt Raine’s theories to tackle crime instead of grappling with the much knottier societal problems that are its more likely roots.

- RM

Grey Matter ran at C Venues until August 29th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/grey-matter 

Adrian Raine’s work reviewed: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/may/12/how-to-spot-a-murderers-brain

Treatment of young offenders: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/13/young-offenders-institution-restraint-injuries

Panorama programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ymzly

The problem with trying to use brain scans statistically: http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v14/n5/abs/nrn3475.html

LAST DREAM (ON EARTH) / Kai Fischer

Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, made his pioneering solo flight on 12 April 1961. Last Dream (On Earth) uses words, imagery and live music to recreate his experiences of countdown, takeoff, weightlessness, and fiery but safe return. 

It’s a spectacular soundscape, and each audience member hears it immersively and intimately through their own individual headphones. But in painful contrast with Gagarin’s triumphant tale, a second story is also told– the desperate journey of refugees trying to reach Spain across the sea from Morocco in a child’s dinghy.

The two stories of peril, bravery, persistence and adversity intermingle and interlink creatively, and we have to ask: could I do this? What would it take to make me risk everything? And how are people changed by such experiences?

Even before their sea journey starts, the refugees in this story have already travelled thousands of miles, been subjected to indignities and uncertainties, and had to bargain, plead and pay.

Little wonder that in Britain, studies show higher rates of depression and anxiety among refugees compared to the national population, with those at highest risk being children, and women who have experienced abuse on their journey.

Figures show that of all people who migrate, asylum-seekers are the most likely to have multiple traumas. Experts have called for more support for those in the asylum system, but the intense politicisation of the issue continues to dog decision-making.

Astronauts, by contrast with refugees, are pampered travellers, rigorously trained for their journeys into such a risky environment. But the psychological impact of living in space is a very topical issue. While Yuri Gagarin spent just 108 minutes on the first spaceflight, a journey to Mars at current speeds would take nine months, one way.

A critical factor in maintaining mental health en route will be discovering how to improve astronauts’ sleep, while light and dark cycles disrupt their natural circadian rhythms.

And could there be genetic impacts on the human body from spaceflight? NASA hopes to answer that question through studying Scott Kelly, a veteran of a year-long space mission, and his identical twin brother, Mark. (RM)

Last Dream (On Earth) ran at Assembly Hall until August 28th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/last-dream-on-earth 

First Orbit, a film featuring audio and imagery of Yuri Gagarin and his mission: http://www.firstorbit.org/watch-the-film

Refugee and asylum seeker health issues: http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/health-of-migrants-in-the-uk-what-do-we-know/

Psychological wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers: http://isp.sagepub.com/content/57/2/107.abstract

Refugee council facts on asylum: http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/policy_research/the_truth_about_asylum/facts_about_asylum_-_page_5

Medical monitoring on the International Space Station: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1025.html

Articles about Scott Kelly and his year-long space mission: http://www.nasa.gov/1ym/articles

SHIMMER SHATTER // Sofie Hagen

Sofie Hagen’s show, Shimmer Shatter, busts a few myths about introversion. It clearly indicates that being an introvert does not mean you are cold and closed-off. It doesn’t mean you won’t stand up and be very funny in front of an audience. And it doesn’t mean you are unable to tell people about the strangest and most personal aspects of your life, like the time you married a plank of wood and invited your school friends around as witnesses.   

What is true, though, is that inside an introvert’s brain particular things are happening. The neurotransmitter dopamine is to blame. It makes us all, whatever our personality, more talkative, alert and motivated to take a risk.  

But while extroverts love the thrill of chasing the release of more and more dopamine, for an introvert the joy of dopamine more quickly turns to overstimulation. In fact, as Dr Marti Olsen Laney has recently written, introverts favour the reward of a different neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Very differently to dopamine, this chemical leads us to turn inwards, to reflect and focus, preferably somewhere calm.  

As an introvert, Sofie Hagen reveals that she favours spending periods of time at parties hidden away in the toilets. She says walls are good because they are a place where a person is not.  

Yet she is still a great people person, and the combination of comedy and honesty in her show has clearly struck a real chord with the audience.

At the moment it feels like introversion is getting all the attention it may never have wanted. Books like Quiet by Susan Cain, and her TED talk, present the introvert/extrovert divide as the most fundamental dimension of personality, with at least a third of people on the introverted side. 

Maybe the time of the introvert has come. With the help of high profile people like Sofie Hagen, perhaps introverts will get their time to speak – if the extroverts of the world can just stop talking for a moment. 

- Rebecca Mileham

Shimmer Shatter ran at Liquid Room Annexe until August 28th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/sofie-hagen-shimmer-shatter

Why extroverts and introverts are different: http://www.quietrev.com/why-introverts-and-extroverts-are-different-the-science/

BBC article on what makes someone an extrovert: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130717-what-makes-someone-an-extrovert

Dr Marti Olsen Laney’s book: https://www.amazon.com/The-Introvert-Advantage-People-Extrovert/dp/0761123695/?tag=quietrevol-20

Susan Cain’s TED talk The Power of Introverts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4

EDINBURGH IN THE SHADOWS // Beattie & Scratchmann

‘Fear is a wonderful thing, in small doses. You ride the ghost train into the darkness, knowing that eventually the doors will open and you will step out into the daylight once again.’ This is author Neil Gaiman’s explanation of why we love a scary story, and it well described the experience of joining Alex Beattie and Max Scratchmann for their bloodcurdling show Edinburgh in the Shadows. 

The evening began with tales about the 16th-century Scottish obsession with witchcraft, which led to 4000 executions. James the Sixth was fanatical about catching witches, who he said went around gnawing dead children’s bones.

According to psychologists, terrible tales such as these give an audience the buzz of an intense shared emotional experience. In addition, the emotions of fear and pleasure create indistinguishable physical responses in terms of heart rate, breathing and pupil dilation. 

Another story from the shadows dealt with the grim life and times of Jessie King, baby farmer. In 1889 she appeared before the High Court in Edinburgh accused of the murders of children she had been paid to care for. Convicted and hanged, there was no such fate for her controlling husband.

I was reminded of the enormous appeal of the Horrible Histories series of children’s books, despite their branding as ‘glorifying and trivialising violence’ by some parents. Psychoanalysts believe we undergo the experience of a terrifying tale as a kind of safe catharsis of the horror of real life and its pressures.

But for their final trick, Beattie and Scratchmann had a different type of story – a cold-case murder. This was about George Meikle Kemp, a self-taught architect who gained the commission to design the Scott Monument, but then mysteriously drowned in the Union Canal.

Psychologist Les Lancaster believes the appeal of a mystery is intrinsic to the human mind, and part of our evolutionary heritage. He calls mysteries the ‘ultimate trail of breadcrumbs,’ inviting us to seek answers. This audience certainly enjoyed coming along for the ride. (RM)

Edinburgh in the Shadows ran until August 27th at Cowgatehead

Mark Griffiths on scary films: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-excess/201510/why-do-we-watching-scary-films

The enduring appeal of horror: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/halloween-horror-films-movies-scared-a6713446.html

Mysteries solved by Les Lancaster, professor of transpersonal psychology at Liverpool John Moores University: https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/why-mystery-matters.html

THE HOURS BEFORE WE WAKE // Tremolo Theatre

Judging by the extreme rarity of mobile phones, tablets, or even laptops on stage, the theatre world has barely caught up with the technological realities of the present, let alone the future. Tremolo Theatre’s The Hours Before I Wake doesn’t step too dramatically beyond the realities of the world we live in. But its commitment to representing a social media-rich, technologically-dense world makes it feel unusual - a sci-fi satire that’s close to home.

The biggest innovation in this dystopian future is that dreams are both monetised, and controlled. Individual consumers can select what they want to dream about, and take a pill to ensure that they can enact their fantasy painlessly during their sleeping hours. For Ian, the show’s protagonist, this fantasy revolves around becoming a superhero who rescues his office crush Janice from burning buildings. It’s childish stuff. But then, Ian is a huge pampered baby, cocooned from the harsh realities of the world by a soothing robot voice who helps guide him through his hours away from work - and reports any untoward behaviour straight back to his superiors.

Theorists have written about the dangers of a ‘frictionless’ world, where sharing on social media becomes constant and thoughtless -- leading to a situation where governments are able to gather a huge amount of individuals with minimum efforts. And companies are quick to take advantage of these new opportunities, too. Business are already able to track everything from their employees' movements to their facial expressions to their menstrual cycles.

The psychological effects of this dependency are less understood. Recent research has associated social media use (specifically, comparison-type behaviours) with onset of depressive symptoms. The Hours Before We Wake predicts a comfortable acceptance of constant sharing that's facilitated by soothing drugs [rather like Aldous Huxley's conception of the drug Soma in Brave New World]. 

This young company have devised a pretty dispiriting future, one that's a logical extension of a rapidly evolving corporate culture. But as its protagonist Ian is inspired to rebel against his tightly-controlled environment, it demonstrates how easy algorithms can be subverted by, as well as built from, human behaviour at its most individual.

- AS

The Hours Before We Wake was on at the Edinburgh Fringe from 5-28 August http://www.thehoursbeforewewake.com/

How frictionless sharing undermines individual privacy http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/how-frictionless-sharing-could-undermine-your-legal-right-to-privacy/254277/

Surveillance in the workplace http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/corporate-surveillance-activists/406201/

Impact of social media on mental health https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/social-media-and-young-peoples-mental-health

THE CONVOLUTION OF PIP AND TWIG // PEP

Cryptophasia is the phenomenon of a language developed by twins. At the start of The Convolution of Pip and Twig the consistent, unintelligible muttering suggest these two are among the 50% of twins who have created their personal idioglossia; an idiosyncratic and essentially private language invented and spoken by only a couple of people.

Kara McLane Burke and Siân Richards humble us with an intimate gentle performance that waxes and wanes like the cardboard moon above the stage. Playing identical sisters they transport us to their world, somewhere between Mr. Ben and Rainbow - a childish hedonistic utopia.

After waking entangled from sleep, they dance and complete chores in synchronisation, until Twig is seduced by the moon and slopes off only to be pursued by her sister/twin into the night and the ocean. Clownlike performance and playful physical theatre is complemented by a handmade set: the ocean is enthralling and helps to disperse the overwhelming sense of separation anxiety whenever the two characters are apart. Research shows emotional attachment in twins can become unhealthy with a loss of individualism; this is almost palpable to the audience who feel a genuine philological sense of disconnection when Pip and Twig are apart.

This summer, BBC’s Horizon My Amazing Twin explored the genetic condition neurofibromatosis type 1 and the different effect it had on a set of identical twins, encouraging a discourse around the research studying the differing genetics of identical twins. The Convolution of Pip and Twig explores the twin’s relationship through repetition, as if they are conscious of their intertwined and indistinguishable DNA.

- Lucy Orr

The Convolution of Pip and Twig  ran at 18.40 at SpaceTriplex (Venue 38) until August 27th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/convolution-of-pip-and-twig

The Lone Twin: How to Deal With Twin Separation Anxiety: https://healdove.com/mental-health/The-Lone-Twin-How-to-Deal-With-Twin-Separation-Anxiety

Twintuition: Ezra and Adeev Potash at TEDxOmaha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDLoOrdhfAw

Identically Different: Tim Spector at TEDxKingsCollegeLondon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W5SeBYERNI

Becoming a twin... at age 23: Georgy Cohen at TEDxSomerville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxHCYSOtLyI

1 Language That Only 2 People Speak: The Secret Language Of Twins: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/twins-secret-languages

MAKING MONSTERS // The Golden Fire Theatre Company

The sexism that Mary Shelley experienced while trying to write literary classic Frankenstein is unfortunately still an immediate and modern concern as literary award shortlists continue to be male dominated. Making Monsters does its best to explore the feminist context surrounding the creation of this psychologically gripping, and essentially modern landmark text.

As the performance starts we are transported to Geneva, where sycophants gather around literary giant and romantic Victorian wide boy Lord Byron. Mary Shelly, Claire Clairmont and Percy Bysshe Shelley along with Byron himself convinced themselves to interrupt the boredom they will compete in a literary challenge: to conceive a horror story.

The male characters are larger than life as Mary and Claire are instantly sidelined; a reflection of the recent discussion surrounding male dominated contemporary literally criticism and awards. Dismissed and belittled by Byron, Mary is not to be banished and slowly she cultivates her ghastly narrative.

Mary’s mother was Mary Woolstonecraft, the writer of A Vindication on the Rights of Woman and references to her writing act as a stepping stone to connect the themes to contemporary feminist discourse. While assessing Claire's stitching, Mary mumbles about body parts and voltage, forehead creased, considering the fear of the promethean monstrosity her mind is creating - born of dangerous knowledge and symbolic of secretive scientific endeavor. Instead of the female anatomy being created from Adam's spare rib, it is Mary, a woman, creating this twisted masculine form. News of the first human head transplant being performed in Russia this year and the ethical minefield this kind of surgery inspires, suggest Mary Shelly might be the mother of modern medical ethics.

Mary Shelly’s writing was a primal manifestation of Fuck the Patriarchy. Manarchists and brocialists -  Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, the sexist radicals of their day -  just couldn’t compete.

- Lucy Orr

Making Monsters ran at 17.05 at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) until August 27th - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/making-monsters

Sexism in publishing: 'My novel wasn’t the problem, it was me, Catherine': https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/06/catherine-nichols-female-author-male-pseudonym

The Deep Rooted Sexism In Literary Awards: https://thinkprogress.org/the-deep-rooted-sexism-in-literary-awards-9b4f49c7f9e3#.14cmjvy9p

Publishing and Prejudice: 5 Female Writers Weigh in on Sexism in the Literary World: http://brooklynbased.com/blog/2013/11/15/publishing-and-prejudice-5-female-writers-weigh-in-on-sexism-in-the-literary-world/

The Ethics of Organ Transplantation: A Brief History: http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2012/03/mhst1-1203.html

A year after face transplant, man says he is 'feeling great' – video: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/aug/24/face-transplant-patrick-hardison-video

SPIDERS BY NIGHT // Coffee House/Stepping Out

Spiders by Night is a double bill of short monologues developed, produced and presented by two Bristol-based theatre companies which describe their work as a collaboration between community members with mental health difficulties or addiction issues and professional artists.

Both monologues are minimally staged and invite audiences to focus their attention on the writing and delivery of both pieces. 'Waiting for ISON', the first monologue begins with Simon looking into space through a telescope in his attic and frantically checking his phone. Simon is an astronomy enthusiast following the comet’s journey across space.

For a while, the monologue merely hints at Simon’s obsessive relationship to his passion, and the isolation that it led to. During that time, we could easily be led to believe that we are about to be told a science fiction story, or one of adventure - and in any case, not an exploration of the character’s mental health. While we understand that Simon may not spend much time outside of his attic or interacting with others, one (human) friend regularly visits him.

When Simon begins to develop a friendship with a family of spiders living in his attic, visits from his (human) friend become less and less frequent, until they stop entirely after Simon calls the police to report the alleged murder of one of his spider friends. This poetic monologue subtly highlights that perhaps to care best for those with mental illnesses, approaches which include supporting people in their immediate environment might be more effective. The Open Dialogue Approach for example is a system of care developed in Western Lapland which works with people traditionally thought of as ‘the patient’ as well as their families or other networks.

The second part of the double bill, 'Insider', is told by a patient-cum-spider herself as she moves around and explores a secure psychiatric ward. With two crutches as additional spider legs, the performer’s physicality compliments the text’s description of the effects of psychiatric care on the patient’s body. Both the patient herself, and an outsider observer, the spider wants to escape and is not able to. While the reason for the character’s placement in a psychiatric ward isn’t made clear, the piece could be read as an exploration of dissociative disorder, or as a comment on the lack of agency the character has over her own care. (LB)

The run of Spiders By Night: A Double Bill of Exciting New Monologues at theSpace @ Surgeon's Hall has now finished. WA, LA, WC - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/spiders-by-night-a-double-bill-of-exciting-new-monologues

Coffee House community theatre company website: http://www.coffeehousetheatrecompany.com/#!about/cfp1

Stepping Out Theatre website: http://www.steppingouttheatre.co.uk/

Further information on the Open Dialogue approach system of care developed in Western Lapland: http://opendialogueapproach.co.uk/

Information about dissociative disorders from the NHS: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/dissociative-disorders/Pages/Introduction.aspx

DOUBTING THOMAS // Grassmarket Projects

Doubting Thomas is ostensibly about Glasgow's criminal underworld, but it's also about the consequences of childhood trauma and neglect, and it's about rehabilitation. Written and performed by Thomas McCrudden with support from the cast, it is the true story of his violent past, detailing his time both in and out of prison.

As well as reenacting scenes from his life, McCrudden explores the roots of his offending, investigating how and why someone might become criminally dispossessed. He says: 'When I was growing up I wasn’t shown love, and that created not just a man without a conscience or empathy. It created a monster.' He also talks about how he was always wearing a mask, and it was only when he found the courage to remove it that he was able to change.

McCrudden's stories of life in prison include descriptions of desperate young men unable to read or write, and several bloody suicide attempts. In Doubting Thomas, prison is not a place where people are empowered to turn their lives around; it is a place of violence and fear, full of young men let down by mainstream education who have found the only way they can prove themselves is through crime.

Research by the University of Strathclyde's Interventions for Vulnerable Youth service has explored the links between childhood trauma and offending. Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist Dr Lorraine Johnston says: 'We see some children dismissed as attention seeking or manipulative. But 75-85 per cent of them have significant histories of trauma. Understanding their behaviour as a response to that can be the key.'

The Grassmarket Project was founded in 1990 by Artistic Director Jeremy Weller, who focuses on putting real life stories on stage. There is often only one professional actor in the cast, with the rest of the parts played by the people who actually experienced them. The act of creating and performing the play is a kind of catharsis, a way to confront one's demons and potentially move on. Doubting Thomas is performance as rehab. (HB)

Doubting Thomas is on at Summerhall (venue 26) at 19:20 until 28 August: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/doubting-thomas

'Mental Health and Prisons': http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/mh_in_prison.pdf

'Prison is not working – it’s time for a rehabilitation revolution': http://www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk/prison-is-not-working-its-time-for-a-rehabilitation-revolution/

'Domestic violence a trigger for three quarters of violent young offenders': http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/14329830.Domestic_violence_a_trigger_for_three_quarters_of_violent_young_offenders/

'Understanding the Cycle, Childhood Maltreatment and Future Crime': https://www.princeton.edu/~jcurrie/publications/Understanding%20the%20CycleChildhood.pdf

Positive Prison, Positive Futures: http://www.positiveprison.org

Prison Reform Trust: http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk

The Howard League for Penal Reform: http://howardleague.org

DON'T PANIC! IT'S CHALLENGE ANNEKA // on the button

A solo comedy show in which writer and performer Sophie Winter plays all the parts, including her boss, her mum, her best friend and 90s TV star Anneka Rice, Don't Panic! It's Challenge Anneka is all about anxiety. It uses humour and silliness to demystify and start conversations about a serious subject.

Sophie worries to a debilitating extent, making daily life incredibly difficult. The people around her don't understand the panic she regularly feels, advising that what she really needs to do is pull herself together and get on with it. Sophie even berates herself – she's a privileged young woman from Hampshire who has suffered no traumas of note. She has a job, a decent income and a roof over her head, what has she got to be so anxious about? Her guilt only makes her feel worse.

Anxiety disorders, which often manifest as excessive worry, fear and a tendency to avoid potentially stressful situations, are some of the most common mental health problems we experience. Modern life is anxiety inducing, but the fight or flight response is ancient. When a human believes they are in danger, their breath shortens, their heart beats faster, they sweat – all symptoms of a panic attack.

After Edinburgh, Don't Panic! It's Challenge Anneka will tour secondary schools, running workshops exploring mental health for students in Year 9 and above. This makes sense, as young people are most likely to experience anxiety. A global review of existing scientific literature by the University of Cambridge published in June this year found that four in every 100 people experience anxiety disorders, with women and people under 35 affected the most.

The literature review highlighted the need for more research, especially into how anxiety affects marginalised groups. Dr Louise Lafortune, Senior Research Associate at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, says: 'Anxiety disorders affect a lot of people and can lead to impairment, disability, and risk of suicide. Although many groups have examined this important topic, significant gaps in research remain.' (HB)

Don't Panic! It's Challenge Anneka is on at Summerhall (venue 26) until 28 August (not 22nd). See venue for accessibility information - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/don-t-panic-it-s-challenge-anneka

Anxiety UK: https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk

'Women and people under the age of 35 at greatest risk of anxiety': http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/women-and-people-under-the-age-of-35-at-greatest-risk-of-anxiety

'Living with anxiety: Britain's silent epidemic': https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/15/anxiety-epidemic-gripping-britain

'Anxiety: the epidemic sweeping through Generation Y': http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/health/anxiety-the-epidemic-sweeping-through-generation-y/

'How It Actually Feels to Live with Severe Anxiety': http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/anxiety-and-me-189

It Affects Me: http://www.itaffectsme.co.uk

PERHAPS HOPE // Company Here and Now

Circus may not seem like the most obvious medium through which to explore climate change, but watching Perhaps Hope it starts to make a certain kind of sense. What other art form involves so much risk? Where else do you see humans courting danger, even death, with such abandon? The circus artist's willingness to edge as close as possible to the brink and stare oblivion in the face is a pretty good metaphor for the world's inaction on climate change.

Company Here and Now describe Perhaps Hope as an 'eco-apocalyptic circus show', and its three acts feature a repeated set of sequences that gradually unravel. The soundtrack is integral to the piece, weaving written extracts in among the music. Key words like 'anthropocene' and 'hyperobject' play out over the strings, Laurie Anderson and REM.

The LA Review of Books explains what we mean by a 'hyperobject' in relation to climate change.  In 'Global Warming and Other Hyperobjects', Stephen Muecke explains that a hyperobject is something vast, something that challenges our assumptions about human mastery over things. Hyperobjects are 'scary game-changers, and they have a touch of the sublime'.

Circus is a display of human mastery over physical constraints – it is a space where a person can balance on one leg on the head of a man, or on the top of a wine bottle. It is a space where people take on gravity and win, if only momentarily. And so it is a potent space in which to talk about issues that challenge human mastery. Perhaps Hope underlines the performers' frustrations and fears about climate change. Through its physical unraveling, it explores the psychological impact of the knowledge that we may be facing the end of the world as we know it.

- Helen Babbs

Perhaps Hope is on at 17.30 at Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows until 22 August. Wheelchair Access, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/perhaps-hope

'Global Warming and Other Hyperobjects': https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/hyperobjects/

 'What is climate change doing to our mental health?': http://grist.org/climate-energy/what-is-climate-change-doing-to-our-mental-health/

'Climate Change Will Have Broad Psychological Effects': http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/06/climate-change.aspx

'Human Health: Impacts, Adaptation, and Co-Benefits': http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WGIIAR5-Chap11_FGDall.pdf

'Saving the World Together: 5 Shows Tackling Climate Change in Edinburgh': http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/saving-world-together-5-shows-tackling-climate-change-edinburgh/

'Generation Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet for ever': https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/01/generation-anthropocene-altered-planet-for-ever