The Yellow Wallpaper
Author(s):
Based on the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, adapted by Stephanie Mohr
Company:
The Coronet Theatre
Running time:
1h approx
Age recommendation:
15+ years
Written in 1892, Gilman’s story was a pioneering piece of feminist literature.
A young mother is confined in an attic nursery in a remote country estate by her physician husband, as a cure for “a slight hysterical tendency”. As she emotionally and intellectually declines, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper on the walls. In her isolation, she sees a woman trapped in the patterns that she must attempt to free.
Gilman, who suffered from depression, experienced the cure of bed rest and domestic isolation as described in the story, as did Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton and Jane Addams. The cure was abandoned after Gilman came close to complete emotional collapse.
