How far would you go to find the perfect cure?
Celebrity influencers, protein shake peddlers, diet pill pushers… we tell ourselves it’s a modern phenomenon. But is it really?
Fast is the true story of ‘Dr’ Linda Hazzard — complex, charismatic and utterly driven — whose promotion, in the early 1900s, of her own radical fasting cure, gripped the press and divided a nation.
Was she vilified merely as an interfering woman in a man’s world... or were there darker forces at play?
Following huge successes in Brighton, Edinburgh and London, playwright Kate Barton has developed her original one-act play, with award-winning screenwriter Stephen Bennett (who also directs), into a full-length psychological thriller that will have audiences gripped from start to finish as the truth about Hazzard’s ‘victims’ is uncovered.
Fasting remains a point of discussion with the global diet pills market currently valued at 1.47 billion US dollars. Fast explores a woman in a man’s world; whatever her motives, arguably her determination to succeed was an inspiration to many women aspiring to build a career in medicine. Hazzard’s practices raised questions, prompted police investigations and challenged law makers, but were her intentions good or fuelled by self-gain?
Using her memoirs and incidents from her life, the play explores her story and society’s self serving cynicism looking at how far we will go for a bit of attention and to feel good about ourselves. Sarah Thom (Grace, Grantchester & Home Fires, ITV; The Final Curtain, St James Theatre, Assembly & UK Tour; A Taste of Honey, National Theatre) will play ‘Dr’ Linda Hazzard.
She is joined by Karl Wilson, Jermaine Dominique, Maia von Malaisé and Imogen Gray.
Listings
Fast: Tuesday 29th October – Sunday 17th November 2024
Upstairs at the Gatehouse Highgate Village, London N6 4BD
Tickets available priced £24 (£22) with previews at £15: www.upstairsatthegatehouse.com