Isaac Teige Atfield’s Would You Like Some Tea? at London Fringe Festival explores mental illness in modern society

(Left to right) Fenn Hafey and Isaac Teige Atfield star in Atfield's drama Would You Like Some Tea? at the London Fringe Festival this August. (Isaac Atfield Photo)

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Theatre Woodstock’s Isaac Teige Atfield is thrilled to be part of the London Fringe Festival this summer.

Atfield’s drama play Would You Like Some Tea? will be featured in the festival between Aug. 12 and 16 at the Metropolitan United Church at 468 Wellington St. in London. The London Fringe Festival is a showcase of independent theatre productions by emerging artists within the region and around the world.

“I've been hoping for this opportunity for a very long time and it's so great to finally be a part of something that's not only historically relevant to the culture of London but has spread across all of Ontario and to be a small part of that is quite beautiful,” they said.

Atfield is the production manager of Theatre Woodstock and has been involved in many on-stage and off-stage roles with Theatre Woodstock, STAGES, and K2K Productions. Since the announcement of Would You Like Some Tea? at the upcoming fringe festival, Atfield’s received support from their theatre colleagues and many shared the news on social media.

The play explores mental illness and is based on experiences Atfield faced with a friend who had a stress-induced psychosis episode. Atfield calls Would You Like Some Tea? a "mix of a love letter to a friend and a harsh look at how we view mental illness in our modern society." Atfield had the phrase “Would you like some tea?” repeating in their head constantly and they decided to make the saying terrifying.

With many conversations in the past few years about mental health, the production suits current affairs and sparks conversations about the different ways mental health is viewed.

“Not only is it so culturally relevant to Ontario right now with the housing crisis and all people struggling to find support in our current political climate, but we also found there was a lot of research into people with stress-induced psychosis or schizophrenia depending on how the culture treats the disorder changes how the people experience schizophrenia and stress-induced psychosis,” said Atfield.

“For example, cultures that are viewing it more as a spirituality aspect tend to have nicer voices spoken back to them.”

Atfield recommends checking out the London Fringe Festival for Would You Like Some Tea? and other productions.

“This is an absolutely wonderful opportunity to experience culture that they can't really find elsewhere in the mainstream arts,” they said.

More information about Would You Like Some Tea? and other London Fringe Festival productions can be found by visiting https://palacetheatre.ca/london-fringe.