Cardiff University’s drama society are performing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Josh Day, the director and play-write of ‘Eat. Sleep. Bathe. Repeat.’ submitted his script to a committee who approved its performance at Edinburgh Fringe Fest 2016

Josh has been working on the original script ‘Eat. Sleep. Bathe. Repeat.’ for the last year. The script is based on real events and follows the lead character, James Parker, who is thrown into care work with no prior knowledge of low functioning autism. The audience are positioned alongside this central character and are given an insight into a side of autism we don’t always see.

Act One, Cardiff University’s Drama Society, performed ‘Eat.Sleep.Bathe.Repeat’ at Cardiff YMCA theatre on the 5th, 6th and 7th of May. The play takes place in a care home for people with low functioning autism. They received a good reception from people who have a first hand experience of autism, particularly the similarities between the characters and sufferers they’ve met.

Members of the society who play residents, Mike Fahey and Sam Borthwick, told us that the most rewarding element of the script is the recognition from people who have experience with autism.

Mike Fahey said: “I think the best part of it is that we’ve heard from people who have experience with autism that they recognise the characters that are actually autistic as people they have met before. They attribute some of the things we do to people they know in real life.”

The play raised £130 for charity

Luke Merchant, who plays James, has a complex role as an actor as he has to show development in understanding the difficult care routines inside the home. He told The Tab Cardiff: “The role is amazing. It was quite challenging at first but everyone does a great job, especially with everyone who is playing autism sufferers. They do such a great job, its easy to act in that environment. You really feel like you’re in a care home.”

The final scene is tearful

Josh Day told us the development and motives behind the script’s production: “I had the script written in six months but its been evolving as we’ve been rehearsing. As the script has molded to actual individuals way of speaking and their natural sort of characters.

I think its perfect for Edinburgh because its a really interesting topic and its the kind of thing, that when you’re at the festival and you’re looking for something a bit different, well this is what it is. We’re dealing with real issues and real conditions which people have and live with. Lots of people are effected by it, whether its them or a family member and I think its the kind of thing that stands out.

It’s a part of society that we don’t see. Everyone has experience of higher levels of autism because they go to mainstream schools, they’re not given the institutional support. But the lower end of the scale you’re in a 24hour care home, this is the place that you wouldn’t see unless you had a family member who was effected.”

Act One are performing at the Festival which takes place from August 5th till August 29th.