Stockholm

By Bryony Lavery

2010, 2008, 2007

Stockholm

Overview

A Frantic Assembly and Drum Theatre Plymouth production

A man and a woman sit close together, staring intently at each other. The man has his hand on the side of the woman's head as she rests her arm on his
This post is written by: Scott Graham Artistic Director

Stockholm was inspired by an incident that happened in a shared house I lived in.

My house mate's boyfriend turned up with a face like thunder and immediately went up to her room with her. They began arguing.

A man and a woman in underwear are on a bed. The bed is scattered with roses. The man is propped-up on his arm while the woman sits on the edge of the bed, facing away from him

The other housemate and myself tried to carry on as normal but as their argument escalated we found it impossible and gravitated towards their room, ready to intervene as the shouts became crashes. As we got to the top of the stairs we found their door open.

The moment they saw us they both screamed at us and slammed the door on us!

I was fascinated by this complex relationship the couple had with the outsiders. While chatting to Steven about this he brought up Stockholm Syndrome.

Extreme close up of a woman, photographed from the floor. She has a wet face and hair and appears to be falling – or being pushed – into water (which her chin is touching). Her expression is one of fear.

We talked about the fine line an abusive couple might tread and the effect that has on their friends. We wanted to create a show where the audience were those friends.

Stockholm was an intense two hander, brilliantly written by Bryony Lavery, with a stunning design by Laura Hopkins.

It was our first collaborations with Bryony and had a profound effect on our collaborative devising process.

Gallery

  • A man and a woman face each other, gently embracing. Their backs appear to transform; exploding into hundreds of flying birds
  • A man and a woman sit close together, staring intently at each other. The man has his hand on the side of the woman's head as she rests her arm on his
  • A woman crawls up some stairs, following a man who's also crawling up backwards

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