OCD - It’s more than just a keenness for cleanness
I want to first introduce myself, my name is Ria, I am a company director at Concept Theatre and I have had OCD for as long as I can remember. Only until the age of 17, it was seen as a quirky part of my personality rather than a symptom of a severe mental illness. It didn’t help that I found this vital information using Wikipedia when researching mental health for a college project. After my self-diagnosis, using Wikipedia (an action I would not recommend), it would be another 9 years until I received specific OCD treatment and another year after that that my suspicions would be confirmed and I was given a formal, medical and more socially recognised diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
It was my second year at university and I was given the chance to create a show about anything I wanted. The show had to be 20 minutes and we could audition people, just like real-life directors. This was both super fun and super scary.
I decided to write a piece called “I’m Just a Little Bit OCD” (an ironic title if you hadn’t guessed as I was very much a lot OCD at this point in my life). I was very lucky to cast three talented actors, two of which had lived experience of OCD themselves. We discussed OCD, the myths we wanted to debunk, the “taboo” themes of OCD we wanted to shed light on and I began writing a script for the devising festival using these ideas. We wanted to create a show that was both brutally honest and tackled shame, anxiety, guilt and fear, whilst making it entertaining, at times light and interactive. This was something I felt was very important. In my experience, when you live with a mental health issue day in, day out, humour can be a great relief and a way to communicate your experience with others.
After the devising festival, we developed the show into a one-act play and performed it at Southend Fringe and Brighton Fringe. The reactions from audience members who had never seen their lived experiences portrayed accurately were amazing and a big motivator for me to take the show even further. We gained support from OCD Action and performed at several of their events both in-person and online. Then, last year we were awarded funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and The National Lottery Community Fund and began planning our first tour.
Before I tell you about the tour and very much encourage you to come along. I wanted to give you some more information about the play. Tilly has started to get intrusive thoughts about causing harm to her loved ones. Disturbed by the thoughts, she hides them from everyone and finds her own way to keep these thoughts at bay. She starts tapping, checking, checking again, researching, asking, reassuring, but when her sister Grace returns home from university, Tilly eventually has to tell her what’s been going on.
"I'm Just a Little Bit OCD'' is a play told through episodic scenes of sisters, Tilly and Grace, as they come to terms with Tilly’s new reality. Alongside their story, brutally truthful, yet comedic monologues are performed by Matilda, a podcaster and OCD advocate as she performs her first live show directly to the audience. Filled with anxiety and frantically searching google for answers, Tilly comes across a podcast all about intrusive thoughts and OCD. It is only now, sitting in the audience watching the first live show of that very podcast, that she can begin to reflect on her own journey from discovery to diagnosis and now finally recovery.
I can’t wait to share this evolved production with brand new audiences.So, if you would like to come along please visit https://www.concepttheatre.co.uk/bitocdplay for the links to all our venues where you can purchase tickets.
The dates and venues are as follows:
3.30pm & 7.30pm 11th June + 2.30pm 12th June The Cockpit
7.30pm 19th June Southwark Playhouse
3.00pm and 6.00pm 26th June Chickenshed (Captioned)
Alongside the show, I am very excited to announce that we will be facilitating creative workshops for adults with OCD with Charlie Blowers from Moving Pieces Collective. We will be using the same techniques I used when creating the show, to explore our lived experience with OCD. The aim of this is to tackle the isolation, loneliness and shame that can be experienced when living with OCD and to meet others who have been through similar things. This was something that really helped me in my own journey with OCD. For more information or to book a place please email concepttheatreco@gmail.com.
Can’t wait to see you all there! Let’s smash these misconceptions together!
CW: intrusive thoughts of a violent, distressing and sexually harmful nature | Suitable for 15+
*Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and The National Lottery Community Fund*
For support and information visit: https://ocdaction.org.uk/
For OCD treatment options visit: For information on OCD treatment visit: https://info.treatmyocd.com/bit-ocd-play