Experimental theatre explores how PTSD shows up in the body

An immersive piece of experimental theatre exploring how PTSD shows up in the body is coming to Battersea Arts Centre this month.

The Body Remembers combines soundscapes, projections, interviews and movement to explore the process of healing after trauma.

Co-created by Mitcham-born Heather Agyepong, Imogen Knight and Gail Babb, the solo performance by Ms Agyepong will showcase “authentic movement”.

She said: “It’s a therapeutic practice of moving through impulse, so wherever you feel like trauma has affected your body – whether it be your neck, your back, your heart, your head – you kind of let that part of your body speak. You just move authentically really.”

Ms Agyepong said that trauma can affect the body in different ways, adding: “It’s a spectrum.

“It can be heart palpitations, headaches, shakes, discomfort in digestion, even autoimmune diseases.

“All of these ailments we have and we ignore – I’ve got a headache, I’m not really sleeping well – sometimes that can be markers of trauma and your body trying to cope.”

The performance features recorded interviews with black British women from different walks of life talking about the ways trauma has affected their bodies.

Ma Agyepong said: “There was a wonderful older woman who just said that over the years she’s realized that this thing that happened to her, that someone else did to her, she’s going to keep fighting.

“And there was this kind of beautiful vulnerable resilience in her voice that she acknowledged the pain that she was going through.

“She gave herself compassion but she also was like I’m not going to let anyone eat away my life.

“We were all blown away by what she was saying because it wasn’t just strength, she was acknowledging her vulnerability and I think that’s really the spirit of the interviews. You can do both.”

The inspiration for the piece came from Ms Agyepong’s personal experience, but also the fact that black people are over-represented in mental health statistics.

She said: “Every October people have a conversation about that and then it goes away. I really wanted to bring awareness but also centre these women’s voices, and also myself.

“All my work is centred around mental health but specifically about healing and recovery.

I’m interested in how we can move through the process of trauma and not just have beautiful representations of trauma.

“I want to move through how we can process that.”

Ms Agyepong is pleased that the piece will be performed at Battersea Arts Centre, after growing up just a stone’s throw away.

She said: “I remember when I was growing up we were like if you want to see something experimental and wacky, go to Battersea Arts Centre.

“It was so important as a black British girl, who wasn’t really seeing black women – or even women – working in that experimental way, and knowing that there was a hub which did that.

“We’ve been wanting it to be there since the beginning, so it feels fantastic.”

The Body Remembers will be at Battersea Arts Centre October 20-23, 27,30 and November 1 to 4. Link here: bac.org.uk/whats-on/the-body-remembers

Picture: Myah Jeffers