Theatre / Claudia Schnier
Claudia Schnier’s ‘Sarah Kane rave’ explores psychologically abusive relationships and OCD
Born in Sydney, but now based in London, Claudia Schnier is a writer and actor who trained in theatre-making at RADA.
As a creative, she is drawn towards heavy-hitting theatre, although her practice is also laced with physical theatre, comedy and soundscapes to ensure nuance, contrast and levity is built into the work.
She is now on a UK tour of her award-nominated and self-directed debut show Split Ends, a show which has already made waves both in her native Australia and at the Brighton, Camden and Edinburgh Fringe festivals.
Inspired by her own experience of OCD and coercive control within relationships, the hour-long performance, described variously as a “tragi-comedy” and a “Sarah Kane rave” includes multimedia elements produced by Schnier herself, and Oscar Gross.
It also features puppetry using scissors and a hoover; the latter signifying the abusive male character whose power is “disguised as love” that impacts directly on their female partner’s mental health.
“I am excited to continue to share this story and inform people how insidious cyclical patterns of subtly harmful behaviour can be”, Schnier says.
“A lot of these harmful actions of pulling back, reengaging and unpredictable emotions can be easily justifiable, making the other person in the relationship very susceptible to gaslighting tactics; however, this process has huge impacts on people’s mental health.
“Split Ends is an exploration of that, and the effect this show has had on other people, and on myself, has been an important part of the show’s evolution.”
The experience of sharing the work with audiences has been instrumental to the healing process for Schnier.
“My inner voice was so detached and blurry to me for so long, that I wasn’t able to validate my own experiences”, she recalls, describing early performances of the show.
“Similarly, my ‘gut feeling’ had been completely annihilated which left me so susceptible to his words and promises. I was justifying his actions right up until after I first performed the show in Brighton. From that point, I felt completely that I had found my voice again and my power started to return.”
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Split Ends (age recommendation 18+) is at Loco Klub on April 28-29 at 8pm. Tickets are available at www.headfirstbristol.co.uk. Follow the artist at @shnierclaudia.
All photos: Sergei Sarakhanov
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