Carlton theatre troupe readies for latest dramatic production
It’s been 19 years since David Zulkoskey last put on a production of The Insanity of Mary Girard.
And the drama teacher and artistic director with Carlton Comprehensive High School’s Mad Hatter Theatre Company is eager to take the stage with the one-act drama by Lanie Robertson, more so in the modern climate of women’s rights.
The play is a fictional interpretation of a real event centred around the abuse of the mentally ill and the plight of women in the eighteenth century. Committed to an asylum by her husband Stephen in 1790 after she became pregnant by a lover, the play shows Mary Girard bound to a wooden chair with a wooden box over her head. Her mind races and impersonates people from her past as her line between dream and reality is blurred while growing into her diagnosis.
“This is the time to put this play on,” Zulkoskey said. “We have so much to say within this play. Now, more then ever, this message needs to be told to people and it is wonderful to see students take ownership of this play.”