10 – 11 March
Alexandra Topping, the Guardian’s political correspondent, recently reported on Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s pronouncement that ‘medical misogyny is letting women down.’ She also examined data from the Mumsnet website over the last decade that warned of ‘structural and deeply embedded sexism in healthcare.’ A survey revealed that 50% of women believed they had been dismissed, ignored or not believed by an NHS professional because of their sex. An unbelievable 64% had been told their symptoms were ‘normal’ or ‘in their head’. In addition, there seemed to be an unwritten holding system of ‘wait and see’ in place, rather than actual treatment being offered. New writer Edie Doherty says she has had personal experience of this attitude and was determined to bring an intolerable situation under greater scrutiny by putting it in the public space.
Doherty, together with fellow student Millie Thomas co-founded the Late Shift Theatre group last year, as their final independent study project at Bristol University’s Theatre and Performance Studies degree course. In Hysterics is their second production, following on from their first, sold-out show Take Care, which appeared at the Alma Theatre in October.
In Hysterics aims to pull no punches in its examination of a profession that seems to be reluctant to properly listen to what women are experiencing when approaching medical professionals for help. But it always has a spoon full of comedy sugar ready to help the tough stuff go down. A scene in which Millie is on a bus answering very personal questions from her surgery on the phone while seated next to a nun is excruciating and very funny. A boisterous audience clearly enjoyed Doherty’s mix of cringe and hilarity, performed as a series of cameos ping-ponging between 1920 and today, occasionally using verbatim narrative that gave the piece a sense of integrity.
The play follows the contemporary experiences of Millie, played here with simmering desperation by Bethany Griffiths. A young woman with recurring migraines, she is simply seeking relief. What she gets, from Dr Wright (Flo Green) and later, when exasperated enough to change doctors, from Dr Richardson (Toby Bateman), is professional patter that offers vague promises of assistance from prescriptions loaded with multiple side effects, but agonisingly, hints of other more useful tests that remain out of reach because of cost. The professional distance exhibited by receptionist (Celia Kelly) as she calls up Millie’s details on her computer adds to a general sense of detachment.
Alongside this narrative, Doherty has injected the figure of Margot, Mrs Brown (Li Friess) – a woman visiting her male doctor (Ruairi Tilley) in the 1920s. A pipe-sucking, tweed suit-wearing figure of authority, Margot’s doctor reassures her that only he can be trusted to understand her body better than her because, well, because he’s a doctor and she isn’t – end of. Insinuating that all her troubles are the result of too little sex with her husband, and that she is exhibiting symptoms of female hysteria, Margot is put through a series of bizarre treatments that bring her no closer to a prognosis. Friess’s clipped Twenties tones are great fun, as are the awkward interactions between doctor and patient in which the former is happier spouting off about hysteria, rather than looking his patient in the eye.
What Margot and her fellow patient Millie, a hundred years later, have in common is a rising sense that things are not improving and that there is a wall of male condescension between them and the help they are seeking. Acting as if in a duet, both reach simultaneous snapping points in a satisfying finale of frustration.
The team behind Late Shift Theatre deserves huge credit, not least because of their successful crowd-funding efforts to put this show on at the Wardrobe.
The production and direction ensures the story unfolds at pace, while Rosy Brown’s supportive graphic design is top notch. It will be well worth looking out for future presentations from this new wave of Bristol-based talent.
★★★★☆ Simon Bishop, 11 March 2026
