Fast was produced by Digital Drama at Park Theatre, London from 15th October – 9th November 2019. Details Park Theatre

★★★★★ “Caroline Lawrie is superb” LondonTheatre1

★★★★ “a powerful play that is sure to have you gripped from beginning to end” Spy in the Stalls

★★★★★ “In Kate Barton they (Park Theatre) have once again identified an important new voice” LondonTheatre1

★★★★ “a chilling production… fascinating and entertaining” The Upcoming

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 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.