Misfits in rehearsal for Forgotten
Misfits Theatre Company
A description of the way people with learning difficultires were mistreated in long stay hospitals, and a look at the rehearsal process as teh Misfits Theatre Company prepare for their production on the subject.
Transcript
[scratchy violin drone plays throughout]
“There’s Stoke Park, Purdown, Hanham Hall, Brentry, and there’s Hortham Hospital. There’s a lot of places used to treat people badly.”
“I said, well they’ll [???] now. You’ve got to. You’d be there for the rest of your life. [???]”
“Forgotten project is all about people with learning difficulties who stayed in long term care hospitals.”
“I’ve... since then I’ve tried to shut it out, like, what happened to me at Hanham Green. But I think it... physically it done a lot of damage.”
“When I see a police car I got to go in the nearest toilet because I’m scared they might take me back. Because if I went back I’d never get out. If you want to know, they said ‘We’ll tell you when to speak, we’ll tell you when to shit. We’ll tell you when to go to sleep. So far as you’re concerned, you’re in here for life, and I was. I spent 40 years.”
“If you escaped you was put on a... you was put in a room all on your own. In a strait jacket. I didn’t suffer that, no.”
“Our next door neighbours seen us going out. Ended up in the pub so they had to ring the police up. And social service they had to knock the door down to get us out. We always split up in the nursery home, and we haven’t ever seen them since I was 16.”
“I think it were the doctors at that time who were a bit... they were a bit stern, hard; no feeling.”
[From rehearsal sound “Every bit of your body is scared.”]
“...And if I reported it to the medical superintendant, they used to say, ‘Take him downstairs and get his head [???].’ When I see my brother I said, ‘What day is it, what year is it?’ He said, ‘What do you mean broth?’ I said, ‘They’ve been pumping me full of tablets.’ I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t have a clue. [???]. You were walking round bombed out of your head like a skeleton. I didn’t take them after a time. I kept them under my tongue. [???] spit ‘em out down the toilet. They found out I was doing it, so the sat on me and made sure... made sure I took ‘em.”
“Oh, the wards was terrible at Brentry. It was terrible, couldn’t... couldn’t bear it there, that’s why I got out. That’s where I had my teeth - I had my teeth kicked out at Brentry. No, couldn’t even go to the shops. Just got kept locked in all day long. Couldn’t go nowhere. I ain’t going back to Brentry again.”
“And the staff used to get [???]. And I told my dad, I said, ‘They ain’t hitting me. Not having him touching me.’”
“Yeah I have seen it. Some of the staff taking them away, screaming and shouting. We used to get woken up, yeah screaming, and banging beds.”
“I was kept in isolation for another five years. They weren’t worried. They said, ‘We’ve got you down there now - you can die down there if you want to.’ I’ve seen people die, die in isolation. No light, no newspaper, no nothing. No blanket; I had to sleep on a cold floor. They said, ‘We’re going to f-ing teach you a lesson. Let’s take him down the hall.’ I went down there. I said, ‘I’ll survive it.’ I didn’t. When I was in there I was seeing, I was seeing things that weren’t there, coming out the wall. What doctor? He said, ‘Keep him down there for a few more years... til he gets his head right.’ I spent ten years. I’m just becoming used to people now. And when I saw my brother for the first time I cried - I cried like a baby. He couldn’t get up the motorway fast enough, and Jan said, ‘There’s Brian over there. That bloke, that man in the corner who’s mumbling. And I said, ‘Pete, are you glad you’ve got your brother back?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ So I cried, I cried with him.”
“I was glad to get out of there, I’ll tell you. I couldn’t wait to get home. I was glad to get out, I was. When I was out, that was it.”
“And I survived. I survived hell, and I mean hell. If they want to break you in there, they will.”
[From rehearsal sound “Being treated in these institutions as if you were dirt is absolutely wrong. I don’t want anyone to go through any inhumane treatment as they did in those days. I want people to not forget there is a positive side to people with learning difficulties and that they are what they are and they’re the same as other people and treated with respect.”]
“I said, ‘Yeah I’ll tell my story.’ I’ll tell my story. And I’ll tell it, I’ll tell it - I’ll stand up on the bloody roof and tell it if I have to.”
