Fast was produced by Digital Drama in the Brighton Festival in May 2018 at Park Theatre,
“An unmissable performance if you want to be captivated by disturbance, chilling sensations and shocking outcomes…” **** Broadway Baby
“Black Mirror vibe…Intriguing, creepy and heart wrenching…difficult to look away” **** Voicemag
FAST by Kate Barton
Washington State, 1910. ‘Doctor’ Linda Hazzard opens her sanatorium to the public. The public do not always survive…
Fast is a dark, psychological drama questioning how far you would go to find the perfect cure. The doors are open and the doctor will see you now…
Digital Drama produced the new play Fast by Kate Barton at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from the 13-25th August 2018 at TheSpace.
Digital Drama was delighted that Fast was selected for WINDOW, Brighton Fringe Festival’s Arts Industry showcase and was shortlisted for the Best New Play Award 2018 with New Writing South.
Fast is a dark psychological drama based on true events. Set at the turn of the previous century in an isolated region of the Pacific Northwest, the play examines the notorious ‘Doctor’ Linda Hazzard. Complex, beguiling and utterly driven, Hazzard advocated a fasting cure that gripped the press and divided the nation. Her ideas were not new, yet Hazzard was subjected to intense scrutiny. Was she pursued because she was a woman in a man’s world, or were there darker forces at play? As they take their seats, the audience are invited to journey with two of her patients, the wealthy Ashworth sisters, and to consider how far they would go to find the perfect cure.
Hazzard’s obsessions with diet were not confined to the early twentieth century, and playwright Kate Barton draws parallels with our modern day anxieties about ‘clean eating’ and fasting for health. The play explores our unfailing belief in those with the title ‘doctor’, drawing links with contemporary public figures who use the title in the same way as Hazzard to command respect.
Writer Kate Barton:
“I am particularly elated that Fast is going to be produced at the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals by Digital Drama as I have just graduated from Cambridge with a Distinction for my first play and am now preparing to leave a ten-year teaching career to turn professional. I have known Kate Valentine of Digital Drama since 2013, when she commissioned me to write a short play for children as part of the International Youth Arts Festival and I have had the privilege of her mentorship ever since that time.”
Director Kate Valentine:
“Digital Drama are delighted that our production of Fast by Kate Barton has been selected as part of WINDOWS at the Brighton Fringe Festival and is nominated for Best New Play 2018. We think this play is going to find a huge audience, with its topical themes of health and diet and the strong female characters pushing the dark psychological drama.”
Photography: Tom Shore
