"Fraility thy name is woman" (Hamlet Act I scene ii) 

 Women have historically been diagnosed with mental health disorders and medicated or institutionalized for reasons ranging from genuine need to the more misunderstood and vague "hysteria", or behaviors that society merely found unacceptable in it's "weaker sex", often at the whim of men. And often their "condition" and behavior are what is treated rather than examining the circumstances that might have led them there to begin with. For Madness Lies I drew inspiration from Shakespeare's famously "mad" characters Hamlet and Ophelia, Susanna Kaysen's memoire Girl, Interrupted, and my own outrage over what has happened and is still happening to women all over the world (the "Free Britney" movement of recent years and women losing agency over their own healthcare options in North America today clearly point to this as not just a dusty old issue from the past but a current one).  Madness Lies is a layered play that takes the audience on a journey through the mind of women struggling with grief and trauma, and just like Alice in Wonderland you might get a little lost along the way, but I'll make the adventure worth it. I am not attempting to tackle the entire mental health industry of the past and today or subvert society's gender expectations but rather journey through the realms of one story and open a different branch of the discussion.

content warnings: mental health, reference to SA