Award-winning Lung Ha Theatre Company are finally bringing Linda McLean’s Castle Lennox to the stage. Originally due to premiere in May 2020, the play features songs by Michael John McCarthy and is co-produced with Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.
Castle Lennox explores the strength, wit and resilience of those who were sent to Lennox Castle Hospital in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland’s largest mental institution, from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was inspired by Linda’s memories of visiting her uncle there in the 1960s.
When Annis, a young girl with autism, finds herself incarcerated in Lennox Castle Hospital, her first impulse is to try and escape the brutal regime of punishment and medication. However, as she gets to know her fellow patients they introduce her to another world – a world exploding with colour and song, an enchanted castle in which the once-a-month disco offers an alternative reality to the daily dose of pills and punishments.
This ensemble piece will be performed by the award-winning, Edinburgh-based Lung Ha Theatre Company, who since 1984 have worked with over three hundred performers with a learning disability, created over forty original productions and toured internationally. The 26 actors from Lung Ha Theatre Company will be joined by 3 actors brought to the production by the Lyceum Theatre in this exciting collaboration between the two companies.
Maria Oller, Artistic Director of Lung Ha Theatre Company, said: When Linda McLean brought the idea of Castle Lennox to me, I just knew that this is the right story to be told, performed and sung by Lung Ha Theatre Company. To work together on a co-production with the Lyceum Theatre is an exciting and long wished for collaboration. Ever since we had to stop the rehearsals of Castle Lennox in 2020 due to lockdown, we have been waiting patiently for this moment – to be able to bring the story to you. Hurray! It’s coming!
Linda McLean, writer of Castle Lennox, said: I have wanted to tell this story for a long time, but it was crucial to me that it do justice to the indomitable spirit of the people I knew in Lennox Castle. As soon as I met Lung Ha Theatre Company, I knew I had found my cast.
“You said small spaces encourage large thoughts… and then you locked the door.”
30 March – 1 April 2023
Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh
Pay What You Can preview performance: 30 March
Written by Linda McLean
Directed by Maria Oller
Music by Michael John McCarthy
Performed by the Lung Ha Theatre Company ensemble
Supported by Margaret Duffy and Peter Williamson