So It Goes Theatre is the work of Douglas Baker, a multi-media theatre artist with a history of adapting well-known literature for the stage. Past productions have included Moby Dick and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Ten Days in a Madhouse is the work of Nellie Bly, an American investigative journalist, who faked insanity to be admitted to an insane asylum in the Victorian period. Her report shocked the world. 

The first surprise of the interview with Douglas Baker on zoom, is that he isn’t at all ‘techie’, considering all the special effects that his company have used in past productions. His ideas for Ten Days in a Madhouse have been germinating since 2017 and the show was actually programmed to be shown in 2020. Then lockdown happened. “It felt like a very important piece of text as it plays on lots of those themes of isolation, loneliness, the advent of increasing amounts of corruption in public office and the loss of faith in various institutions, repeated instances of violence against women and loss of trust in our leaders” explains Baker “it felt like it’s the right time; that this is the show that we should be doing now.” The restrictions during Covid drove a key choice to downsize the show to a solo performance. “What came out of this is interesting creatively” says Baker.

Rehearsals have already begun with Lindsey Huebner as Nellie Bly. “The practical restrictions are leading us though creative choices” explains Baker. “We’ve already had some voice sessions with actors up to now so half of the scene is already set and then we’re trying to tweak the live part of the scene.” It has led to some confusion. “Ooh! it’s your line, no no it’s your line” laughs Baker. “I have a habit of tweaking it and making big changes close to the end-but that can’t happen this time” he admits.

Baker’s choice of working with adaptation also comes about partly because of the practicalities. “It’s nice to adapt stuff because it feels like new work” he explains, “it’s taken me about a year to do this, but new writing takes longer and means that financially it can’t work”. He would love to have the time but he’s also conscious of the advantages of known texts. “How history rhymes, look at a text, like it’s 200 years ago, but it’s sort of the same conversations, concerns, worries, that are coming up today” he says. Ten Days in a Madhouse is almost forgotten. “Dante and Moby Dick are not forgotten but they’re not a Romeo and Juliet type text which is central in the school curriculum” he says. “We take text from obscure sources and people say ‘oh, I didn’t know that was from there’” he continues, “it’s a direct piece of journalism we’re adapting, we’re taking a piece of public service information and turning it into a drama.”



Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse was originally released in two parts across two Sunday editions in The New York World, and then later published into a book. The play is about the whole journey, not just the asylum. It shows how Bly has to convince people that she’s insane and get committed to the Blackwell Asylum in order to write an expose. “She sees doctors and tours public institutions in New York before she even gets into the asylum” explains Baker.

“The shock is that we haven’t moved on very far from the story, that for me, is the most telling part of it” says Baker. “Obviously, it’s nothing compared to the Victorian system, but the mind set of people with the same sort of social problems, toxic male culture, narcissistic incompetent men, all these kinds of problems, oh god we’re still there and in that perspective, it’s still quite shocking.”

The multi-media aspect of Baker’s work came about because he used to make short films. “I was flipping between film and theatre and with Dante’s Divine Comedy, I thought let’s put these two together and see what that does” explains Baker. “Everything else from there is trial and error; see what works and what doesn’t work.” Ten Days in a Madhouse is the first show in which the company is using cameras. “She (Lindsey Huebner as Bly) is helping to generate a lot of the content we’re seeing, using a mix of her own life and the asylum” explains Baker. “She projects a mix of pre-recorded animation and live stuff.” 

Whilst this first week of rehearsals is all about getting the show on its feet, next week is “tech hell!” according to Baker. “That’s when we get together the live mixed media animation and what’s going onto the projector.” The other important part of the technical work is the sound as this show is a “headphone piece.” Audiences will be wearing headphones. “The intimacy helps sell the immersion” says Baker. He’s cautious of the word ‘immersion’ because of what it usually summons up in the mind, whereas in this show the audience is seated.

Baker felt a “bit sick last week, full of a sense of dread, because nothing has been set yet,” but he’s super confident of the “clarity of Nellie Bly’s voice.” “She’s such a wonderful writer, so funny, extraordinarily funny” smiles Baker. “It’s a bit like being in Flea bag, when she just turns to the audience and says something directly to them; it’s vivid and clear cut, she centres herself in it.”

Baker likes to think that rehearsals are a very happy place. “Human behaviourist Catherine Price talks about the key to happiness and a happy rehearsal is very similar to this” says Baker. “The key to experiencing joy is ‘connection, playfulness, and flow’: between the actor and director, actor and audience, the actor and tech there’s an inherent sense of playfulness.” For Baker it’s the place to make lots of mistakes and he sees them as an opportunity. “Otherwise, you don’t know it’s a mistake; everything’s up in the air, voice, video, sound, all the plates are spinning, it’s organised chaos with everything happening at same time.”

So, what’s the main takeaway for the show? “I don’t know yet” admits Baker “but the sense of trepidation and the sense of isolation that I think we’ve all been through during the last two years, even if the specifics are different, (we haven’t all broken into a Victorian insane asylum); we have felt alone, afraid, anxious, worried done things out of character, pushed ourselves to do things we didn’t know we could do, or retreated in a way we haven’t done before; we’ve also seen how leaders respond in moments of crisis, these kinds of experiences do shape people.” He adds thoughtfully: “Is it a catharsis of the last two years, all these things bubbling up and being seen?” 

So It Goes Theatre presents

TEN DAYS IN A MADHOUSE

JACK STUDIO THEATRE

410 Brockley Road, London, SE4 2DH

14 June to 2 July 2022

Box Office

Creative Team
Adaptation | Douglas Baker
Director | Douglas Baker
Lighting Design | TBC
Sound Design | Calum Perrin
Video Design | Douglas Baker Movement Director | Matthew Coulton Producer | Lucie Regan

Cast | Lindsey Huebner as Nellie Bly 

“I said I could, and I would. And I did.”

1887, New York. Reporter Nellie Bly, the pioneer of investigative journalism, fakes “insanity” and is admitted to an asylum to expose the treatment of its patients. Her report shocked the world and shone a light on those society had chosen to forget.

Ten Days in a Madhouse is a warning to us all - reminding us that true power is not measured by how institutions impose authority, but by the compassion they show, especially in moments of crisis.

From the award-nominated creative team that produced Moby Dick, So it Goes Theatre brings Nellie Bly’s incredible true story to life with irreverent humour, immersive sound design and spectacular video design.

Wearing provided headphones, the audience will be transported inside the head of Nellie Bly as she undergoes a terrifying and life changing journey.