London’s Bush Theatre issues 12-page trigger warning ‘self-care guide’ – that includes advice on breathing and ‘grounding exercises’ – for distressed audience members
Theatergoers are now well accustomed to activating alerts at performances.
But one venue has now taken this to the extreme by creating 12-page ‘self-care guides’ for its plays.
The move goes through London‘s prestigious Bush Theatre, where actress Phoebe Waller Bridge launched her career, publishes the comprehensive content guidelines on her website.
The self-care advice includes suggestions on how to maintain your mental health, such as watching with someone and ‘finding some nature’.
The Arts Council-funded venue also includes a step-by-step guide to ‘grounding exercises’ to ‘connect yourself to the present moment’, should you be triggered by a production.
London’s Bush Theater (photo) has published the extensive guide on its website
It advises spectators to notice “five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste.”
They are then told to “sit with your feet on the floor and your back against your chair and gently tap each leg or cross your arms and tap your shoulders,” after which they should “wash your hands or need to drink some water’. .
Latest play Lady Dealer, about a female drug lord forced to confront her own mental health, warns of themes of drugs and sexual content, as well as ‘references to body hatred and fatphobia’ and ‘references to blood’.
The theater guide includes suggestions to maintain your mental health, such as watching together and ‘seeing nature’. Photo: The Terrace Café at the Bush Theatre
According to the guide, self-care is a “choice to listen to our needs and care for ourselves so we can move on and live our best lives.”
West London theater is one of the most important locations for establishing emerging talent.
The two performance spaces, including a 144-seat main building, hosted an unidentified Mrs Waller-Bridge, 38, in Like A Fishbone in 2010.
Actors including Dame Judi Dench, 89, have been critical of the increasingly ‘woke’ trigger warnings being issued ahead of British productions.
She recently said that if you are so sensitive, you should not go to the theater.
