Published 2 May 2012 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing A Suffolk theatre company is to stage a play in a former mental health hospital before the buildings are sold off. Red Rose Chain will perform Different Buttons at St Clement’s Hospital, in Ipswich. It will explore the changes in the treatment of mental illness since the site opened as the Ipswich Borough Lunatic Asylum, in 1870. The NHS is seeking outline planning permission for housing before it tries to sell the site. The play features five fictional characters from different periods of the hospital’s history. An oral history project, featuring former workers and patients, has been used to inform the writing. Humour and lightness Jo Carrick, Red Rose’s writer and director, said: “There will obviously be resonances with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a film which had fantastic ensemble acting, but hopefully this is a piece for our time. “There are some very sad stories, but also some very inspiring stories about compassion and all human experience has moments of humour and lightness – one of the characters thinks he’s the King of Ipswich for example. “Before the 1960s, there was very little treatment that you… Read full this story
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