Interview: Oh, Calm Down
“I really wanted to share a story about how having an undiagnosed condition can really knock you sideways in life”
Ahead of their show at the South London Previews Festival, Charlotte Anne-Tilley (Writer/Performer), Ed White (Director) and Maddy Banks (Performer) of Oh, Calm Down discuss the show.
What is Oh, Calm Down about?
Maddy (Performer): Oh, Calm Down follows the journey of our dual protagonists – heavily pregnant Lucy, set in 1999, and our arts student Claire, set in 2024. They both have OCD but neither of them are aware of that, and we follow their journey as they run parallel alongside each other. We see them navigate everyday life and relationships, whilst also experiencing mistreatment and misinformation in regards to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Something that this play really highlights is the lack of understanding and stigmatisation we generally have in regards to OCD. It questions whether there really has been any progress in the 25 year jump we see with Lucy in 1999 and Claire in 2024.
Can you tell us a bit more about the characters?
Maddy: Lucy is in the latter stages of her pregnancy. She is a single parent, and throughout the play we see the escalation and spiraling of her thoughts and emotions as her labor quickly approaches.
Charlotte (Writer/Performer): Claire is an art student who, at the start of the play, is kind of procrastinating and desperately trying to avoid deadlines she has for art school. As the play goes on, her habit of avoiding things and suppressing things starts to spiral and go wrong as things also start to go wrong in her personal life.
She’s a really interesting character to play. I love her thought speed - she thinks very fast and flicks between things quickly and that’s a real challenge. She also, as a person, interrupts herself a lot which is a really fun thing to play as an actor, to find spontaneity and authenticity when someone is constantly self-critiquing and self-analysing.
Charlotte, what inspired you to write OCD?
Charlotte: I wanted to write OCD because I have OCD myself. It took me a really long time to get diagnosed and I completely misunderstood what OCD is and how it can manifest. In particular, with pure OCD where there’s no external compulsions at all, it’s all mental – mental checking and avoidance and rumination and things like that. It really struck me that it’s something that’s so misunderstood and underdiagnosed. I really wanted to share a story about that and how having an undiagnosed condition can really knock you sideways in life and it’s really debilitating.
I created these characters in which circumstances that happen to all of us (e.g. birth, death, difficult relationships) happen to them, but they’re carrying this huge additional weight on their shoulders of undiagnosed OCD.
It took me 8 months to write the play, and since then they’ve really grown and blossomed into these fully formed characters who are complex and different and charismatic and interesting as well, beyond the fact that they have OCD.
What do you hope people leave the theatre with?
Charlotte: I hope audiences leave the theatre with a sense of hope. I think all of my plays have a feeling of hope in the end that things can change and get better, and it’s what I believe as a person and it’s one of the reasons that I write. I also hope that people leave with a more rounded understanding of what OCD is like, hopefully it arms them with empathy and real connection to how OCD can manifest beneath the surface. If they ever see someone performing compulsion, all the thought processes and difficulties going on under the surface. Compulsions can come in a million different ways and I hope that’s another thing people understand when they watch the show.
Ed, what are your thoughts so far on this project?
Ed (Director): There's so much we don't know or understand about OCD. and it is a deeply nuanced and complex disorder that if this play just gets people talking about it, raises a little bit of awareness, it will just be one of those small steps into creating a change and to helping people who are living with the disorder and helping people understand the disorder.
I’m also so excited to be working with the creative team - Orla and Bella, the lighting designers, and Tom the producer. And with Charlotte writing and starring beside Maddy… It’s a dream team, and I feel blessed and honoured to be working with them and I can’t wait to show you what we come up with.
What do you think people will enjoy about Oh, Calm Down?
Maddy: Although Oh, Calm Down covers a very complex and difficult subject, our writer Charlotte is very good at injecting humour into her writing, which is what I think you’ll really enjoy with this show. It’s multi-layered and feel very relatable.
Ed: I’m already having a lot of fun working with Charlotte on this. She’s written a beautifully personal story that is uplifting and heartbreaking and funny and educational without it being lecture-y.
Charlotte: The thing I hope people will enjoy about Oh, Calm Down is the journeys that these characters go on. I love the fact that we get to see these characters who are deeply flawed and dysfunctional at the start learn to live more sustainable and content lives as the play goes on. We see the way that they interact with those around them but also their own thoughts. It actually leads to a profound change in their day-to-day lives where they become way more functional. I think it’s quite a subtle yet dramatic shift that these characters go on which I’m excited to share with an audience and see how audiences respond and perceive those changes in the characters.
Oh, Calm Down runs at the South London Previews Festival on Friday, 19th July 2024. Tickets: £12.50 (Early Bird), £14 (Standard).