VIVIENNE SOMETIMES:

A LIFE OF VIVIEN HAIGH-WOOD ELIOT

Hello! Welcome to 'Vivienne Sometimes', a multi-media theatre production and exhibition about Vivien Haigh-Wood Eliot, author and first wife of poet TS Eliot. The live show explores Vivien's well-documented struggle with physical and mental ill-health, her marriage to Eliot, and her final years at Northumberland House Private Mental Hospital (1938-1947).

The project is a cross-border collaboration between artists, Bruce Castle Museum (with Mind in Haringey) and Hackney Archives (with City and Hackney Carers Centre).

Performance & Exhibition:

'Vivienne Sometimes' live show, Bruce Castle Museum (15th October 2022, to mark World Mental Health Day (10th October))

'Vivienne Sometimes' live show,

Fruit Works, Canterbury (October 2023; date TBC)

Exhibition

'Vivienne Sometimes'

Hackney Archives (29th March 2023 - end April 2023)

Exhibition launch on 29th March (times TBC)

Contact Me

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We performed the show in March 2023 as part of the Hear Me Roar Festival.

Read Erica Smith's piece about 'Vivienne Sometimes' in Hastings Online Times (08 March 2023).

Meet the Team
'Vivienne Sometimes' is supported by a group of artists.

Writer, Ilustrator and Project Lead

Donna Fitzgerald

elle_fitzgerald@outlook.com

Actress

Rosanna Lowe

http://rosannalowe.com

Pianist

Sam Bailey

sam@freerangecanterbury.org

Dramaturg

Kristin Fredriksson

beadyeye@live.co.uk

Photographer & Videographer

Stuart Dodd

inochipictures@gmail.com

Illustrator/Designer

Caleb Simmons

shout@calebsimmons.co.uk

Hi, I'm Donna, the project creator and lead on 'Vivienne Sometimes'.

Nice to meet you!

Welcome to my project blog, where I will be sharing regular updates on our progress with uploads of new creative work, rehearsal videos and event information.

This is the start of the project journey and myself and the artistic team are thrilled to be setting off!

Our first event was a talk/presentation about Northumberland House Mental Hospital on Saturday 14th May, 2022, at the annual Haringey History Fair, Bruce Castle Museum: https://haringeytoday.com/haringey-history-fair-2022/

My presentation, 'Reconstructing London's 'lost' Hospitals: the Case of Northumberland House Mental Hospital', approached the question of 'reconstruction' from the viewpoint of an art practitioner. I shared some of the questions that have arisen during my research into Northumberland House, demolished in 1955, and how I propose to use photographic and other archival sources within the live show.

(See below for a short video and full transcript of the talk).

Thanks to all of those at the Fair who recommended archival sources and offered references for me to follow up on.

If you have any stories about and/or images of Northumberland House that you might like to share at the Fair (for possible inclusion in the project), please do get in touch.

Contact