Pictures of You – ‘What’s Up Doc?’
Commission 2015-16

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Directors: Paul Bourne & Patrick Morris

Dramaturg: Patrick Morris

Partner: MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge

Collaborators: Professor Emily Holmes and Dr Martina di Simplicio

Pictures of You was Menagerie’s main ‘What’s Up Doc?’ commission at the 2015 Hotbed Festival. Collaborators Emily Holmes and Martina di Simplicio are researchers into intrusive mental imagery in bipolar disorder and have published widely on the subject. The text was written by Craig Baxter, a long-time Menagerie associate.

Inspired by their work, Pictures of You explores the differences between verbal and visual thinking, the close relationship between mental imagery and emotion, the effect of intrusive mental images (of both the past and the future) on those who experience them and ways mental imagery can be used in therapy to help them.

Craig Baxter was also fascinated by the links between the imaginative world of theatre and the latest ideas from the neuroscience and psychology of human thought and emotion. Does a play’s script consist of a sequence of words that the characters say? Or are the words mere captions for a series of dynamic images? What is more important for producing emotional engagement with an audience: the words the actors say or the images they create?

Pictures of You was further developed for an interactive event at the MRC-CBU during the Cambridge Science Festival in March 2016. We are working with Dr di Simplicio to explore the potential of clinical settings for future performances.