Airswimming

Persophone is just planning for her coming out ball when she finds herself consigned to a rather puzzling finishing school: St Dymphna’s Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Here she meets Dora, a fellow inmate, shunned by society for daring to be different. Airswimming is based on the true story of two women who have been incarcerated in a mental asylum for being ‘moral imbeciles’ for having borne illegitimate children.

Forgotten by their families and institutionalized for over 50 years, Dora and Persephone adopt alter egos Dorph and Porph, to enact their fantasies and survive the silence of incarceration.

Described by BBC radio 4 as “an uplifting comedy of friendship, fantasy and freedom” the play is equal parts funny and vivacious, and heartbreakingly poignant.