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Enormous Yes: The Forbidden Experiment

This year's Platform 18 Award Winners

‘… the king caused tak ane dumb woman, and pat hir in Inchkeith and gave hir two bairnes with hir…’ Read more …

In 1493 a young King James IV of Scotland ordered that two infants be left on the island of Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth to be reared by a mute woman. He hoped to uncover humanity’s original language; the words Adam shared with his God. What James did became known as The Forbidden Experiment.

In 2009 Rob Jones and Michael John O’Neill issued an FOI for data on the British Army’s activities on Inchkeith during the Second World War. The pair wanted to know about the MoD’s interest in language deprivation, and about the forbidden thoughts that became forbidden acts once again on that lonely island in the Firth of Forth.

It’s taken some time, but Rob and Michael have found something. Something they think you should know.


The critical consensus

The material, by their own tongue-in-cheek admission, is "qualitative not quantitative", but its real problem is that it's not fully integrated into a coherent whole. It's less than the sum of its interesting parts. An enormous yes for a bright and imaginative company and a cautious yes for the show.

***(*)(*)Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 24/04/2014


Features about Enormous Yes: The Forbidden Experiment

Theatre preview: The Forbidden Experiment

Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman, 20/04/2014

Enormous Yes explore home truths about the home front in The Forbidden Experiment

Gareth K Vile, The List, 22/04/2014

Where and when?

The Arches, Glasgow from Tuesday April 22, 2014, until Friday April 25, 2014. More info: www.thearches.co.uk

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Thursday May 1, 2014, until Saturday May 3, 2014. More info: www.traverse.co.uk

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