The Afflicted
conceived by Jake Jeppson and groupwork
text and dramaturgy by Jake Jeppson
directed by Finn den Hertog and Vicki Manderson
In a small town in upstate New York a group of teenage girls starts behaving strangely – twitching and stuttering uncontrollably and without any cause. Is it a case of mass hysteria? Or something darker? Inspired by real events and drawing on the conventions of true crime podcast, documentary and horror, The Afflicted combines original choreography, video and text to examine how a community deals with abnormality in its midst.
Edinburgh, 2019, Summerhall
**** from The Stage
“Rarely have I been so wonderfully petrified that the action onstage will spill over into the audience” — Exeunt Magazine
“a deliciously eerie essay on contemporary American dis-ease and patriarchal pressure” — Fest Magazine
Created with support from the Eugene O’Neill Center, National Theatre of Scotland, and Creative Scotland.
photo by Mihaela Bodlovic