A FRIEND who talked a suicidal woman down from one of the Clyde bridges has inspired a play which premieres this week.
Written by 21-year-old Glaswegian Milly Sweeney, Water Colour is the winner of the St Andrews Playwriting Award and is directed by Sally Reid who played PC Sarah Fletcher in Scots Squad.
Starring Molly Geddes and Ryan J Mackay, both fresh from the Netflix production of Lockerbie, it will open at Pitlochry on Friday before moving to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews at the end of the month.
Sweeney told the Sunday National that the story was entirely fictional but the Clyde bridge drama had been a catalyst for tackling the issue of mental ill health.
“I found from talking to other people that these kinds of stories of helping strangers in their time of need are not really uncommon – it is more of a universal experience than I had anticipated,” she said.
“Something like one in four people will struggle with their mental health throughout their lifetime. There is increased awareness of mental ill health and more people are reaching out for help but the funding for getting these people help from the NHS has not mirrored that increase.
“They can’t get the help they need and there are waiting lists and barriers to getting diagnoses so these are all things I was wanting to explore.”
Sweeney said she herself had struggled with bouts of mental ill health as had some of her friends.
“There is a general sense of hopelessness I feel in the world just now which is quite hard to ignore,” she said.
One of the characters in the play is a budding artist who specialises in watercolour and Sweeney said she had been keen to explore the relationship between artists and mental illness.
“I think sometimes creative people are more susceptible to it but there have also been various studies on the positive impacts of the creative arts on mental health and that is again something we explore in the play.”
Despite the subject matter, Sweeney said the overall message of the play was one of hope.
“Even in the murkiest of waters there is colour to be found so it is this idea that you can extract some sort of positivity from a dire situation,” she explained. “If you sit with it long enough there is always colour to be found.”
Although this is her professional playwriting debut, Sweeney has had a lot of experience in playwriting despite her young age, having joined Glasgow Acting Academy at the tender age of eight and attending regularly until she was 18 years old.
“I’m proud to have gone there and grateful to have had that as the staff pour pore so much love and effort into it,” she said.
“I write shows for young people there and I have a queer, female-led theatre company with my friends called Cuttin’ Aboot. We produce original plays and I have been writing for them since we started.
“Having theatre is where I go to for my healing and recovery. Having something that you are passionate about and something to look forward to gives you the motivation to get well and get stronger.
“I also count myself very lucky to have a solid support system – kind, patient friends and family.”
Sweeney added that she also felt very lucky to have won the St Andrews Playwriting Award when she had just graduated from New College in Lanarkshire.
“I still can’t believe it is all happening the way it is,” she said.
Director Sally Reid said she was thrilled to be going back to Pitlochry to direct Sweeney’s debut play.
“The first time I read it, the characters sprang off the page and I was immersed in their vivid worlds,” she said.
“Milly’s play delves quickly and succinctly into the heads and hearts of the characters as they navigate through the complexities of staying afloat in their young adult lives, surviving in Glasgow, a new city to both of them. It brings hope when the characters believe there is none and hopefully the audience will feel that sense of uplifting hope when they leave.”
Water Colour is co-produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Byre Theatre and the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland and runs in the Studio at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from May 9-17 before heading to the Byre Theatre on May 28-29
