Search

Toggle dark mode:

Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Browse articles

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

ED Recovery

 
Nicholas Abrams Review by Nicholas Abrams 3 Published: 27 Oct 2024 Fabbricateatro Show Dates: 24 Oct 2024-27 Oct 2024

‘I learned how to vomit silently…’ When these words are uttered midway through Lia Locatelli’s performance, it’s clear that this show isn’t going to pull its punches. It would be an easy cliche to call this a ‘powerful and moving performance’, and this show is certainly more than an easy cliche of eating disorders.

Full of real emotion, providing a strong and vibrant voice for these emotional stories

As the statistics projected at the end explain, the number of people with an eating disorder or mental illness has significantly risen over the last decade. Those statistics are pretty shocking; one person dies every 52 minutes from an eating disorder, and almost 10% of the population suffers from an eating disorder, with young females the most likely; it has the second highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness (just behind opiate addiction).

Director Lia Locatelli spent a year collecting the testimonies of young people affected by eating disorders and has collated them into a sharp and insightful verbatim piece in Ed Recovery. Lia speaks each extract from these young people, and transitions between each extract are broken up by dance/videography from Caterina Rossi.

There’s much to commend the show - indeed, it’s a topic that affects more than just the 10% of people with eating disorders. It affects their family, friends, and others close to them. Body shaming, anorexia and binge eating are all covered in this engaging piece that has been written to highlight an issue that has been on the rise since COVID-19.

What was even more striking was that the entire performance was in English. It takes a lot of courage to perform a show about eating disorders in a language that is not your own - and, a couple of pronunciation issues aside (binge eating, pronounced as bing eating, stuck in mind), it was a largely successful translation. Ed Recovery is being performed over four nights, with two performances in Italian and two in English. Performances in English are precisely what Catania Fringe will need if it’s to continue growing and appealing to an international audience.

I confess that I hadn’t understood at the start of the show that it featured verbatim extracts of young people with eating disorders (the issues of using Google Translate on a website that’s entirely in Italian). More of an issue was that I didn’t understand it during the performance. Each individual extract wasn’t defined enough - there were no costume changes, no changes of voice, nothing that separated out each character. The use of space was minimal throughout the piece - and it would have benefitted from a director who wasn’t also the performer to provide some guidance on using the stage as a whole (a common issue in fringe theatre shows).

I also wasn’t convinced by the dance interstitials. While I can appreciate that separating out the verbatim extracts was needed, was a dance routine set to traffic video loops in New York what was needed? It felt like a missed opportunity to advance the story or provide some narrative context to the extracts.

Various sound clips accompany the choreography and set the scene for several of the verbatim extracts. In a small theatre with concrete walls, the volume set meant that the sound echoed and overlapped too frequently—for that size theatre, the volume needed to be set a bit lower.

When the play turns to darker moments, such as a graphic explanation of how years of vomiting leave you unable to vomit merely through your fingers, the power of these young people’s confessions shows through. It’s in those moments that the show comes alive and becomes increasingly engaging, and more time should have been given to these critical passages.

Ed Recovery is a brave show that isn’t afraid to illuminate the complex and horrifying nature of eating disorders. Lia’s performance is full of real emotion, providing a strong and vibrant voice for these emotional stories. However, there is potential to develop this piece further, and the scope for further direction gives more power to the script and performance.

Amir Nisi

Nicholas Abrams

Nick runs Broadway Baby's Brighton operation.

Related to this article:

Location:

Performances

The Blurb:

A true, intense, and engaging show, written to give voice to those fighting against eating disorders. A touching and evocative representation, but above all, real. ED Recovery is a hashtag that signifies the beginning of the healing journey. An original piece that addresses eating disorders. Conditions such as anorexia and bulimia are portrayed through the eyes of girls and boys who have experienced the drama of the illness firsthand and are fighting to reclaim their place in the world. The dramaturgy is based on research conducted by director Lia Locatelli, who spent a year collecting the experiences of young people affected by eating disorders. The texts presented on stage are drawn from authentic testimonies.

The actors' performances and artistic expressions intertwine with impactful audio choices, while the video contributions that appear in the background enhance the immersive experience for the audience.

Through touching words and the dramatic nature of artistic expression, the show aims to shake the viewer's emotions and generate reflection on their condition and that of society.

The Producers
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Popular now
Matilda
Titanique
The Play That Goes Wrong