Courtyards of a Sane Mind

SETTING

Two sparsely set rooms of a psychiatric hospital. Bed and mattress. Each room accommodates one patient. Out side of the rooms stands one nurse. The nurse is standing squarely disinterested, rigid, clinical.
A psychiatrist sits at a desk at the front of the stage setting.

CHARACTERS
ANIMUS Patient 1. A male patient psychotic with paranoid delusions. Voices envelop his thinking.
ANIMA Patient 2. A female patient suicidal, sad angry about her life on the fringe of society
PSYCHIATRIST.
VOICE. Not seen but heard.
NURSE.
WOMAN.
MAN.

The setting represents the psyche. The main characters represent the different aspects of the mind. The psychiatrist represents our analytical side. The two patients represent the imbalance of anima/animus. One patient is delusional/paranoid/psychotic and the other suicidal, unable to cope with life and many aspects of her self. The nurse represents the watcher, the part of our psyche, which stands on the fringe of our mind, not quite deep enough to be caught up in the psychosis and not quite detached and in the reality of living.
The Voice within representing all the many sides to the psyche and persona. Ever talking, conflicting, taunting and sometimes rational and grounding. Never consistent.
A play written partly in a poetical way. The dialogue moving from character to character underlying their split from the rational self.

Dettagli