Dazzling New Dark-Comedy Launched at the Old Red Lion Theatre.
“I have a question. If I'm so hard to be around; if you hate this room with the passion you claim; if you're this vibrant social butterfly, perpetually fascinated by everything and everyone you come into contact with ... then why are you still here?”
From the mind and pen of emerging young playwright Rebecca Weston Wright comes a brand-new, vivid and highly ambitious piece of ground-breaking theatre. In a world where mental health is often reduced to social media soundbites, Boxed In offers a rich, funny and surreal exploration of the thoughts that keep us from moving on with our lives. Deftly interweaving wry irreverence with heart-rending emotion, the play lifts the lid on our unconscious internal dialogues and shows how, through honesty and courage, we can rise from the ashes anew.
The story begins in a bleak, cold, utterly dismal room, from which there appears to be neither escape nor salvation. In the wake of crushing grief, A is forced to confront her most intrusive thoughts as she tries to figure out where her life went wrong. Grappling with heartbreak, a terrible job and uncertainty over her future, it soon becomes clear that the real enemy is coming from within. For sharing her dismal quarters is a simple, brown wooden Box, whose unassuming appearance conceals its sinister intent: to make her life a living Hell. Tactician, entertainer, and inspired magician, the Box’s slippery and relentless insistence that there is no hope for the woman voices her most painful limiting beliefs. Can she find a way to silence it, or must she learn to live with what it has to say?
Flipping the script on the traditional one-woman play format, Boxed In offers a truly unique perspective on mental health and anxiety, shining a light on both the wit and the wiles of our most damaging – and, perhaps incredibly, our most protective - parts.
Prepare to laugh, cry, hope and despair along with A as she embarks upon that most difficult and most relatable of journeys – coming face to face, finally, with who and what we really are.
Listings
Boxed In: Tuesday 15th April - Saturday 26th April 2025.
Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London, EC1V 4NJ
Tickets: £16 / £13 - Boxed In