All in all I have spent 10 weeks in The Priory. My last stint was in December 2006 - where I went after a serious post-bereavement breakdown.

The place was incredibly helpful and it really did help.

There were, however, many things in the Priory I found humour in.

It is true to say that not a single 'gag' about the patients/place didn't come from a genuine experience (of course no names have been mentioned).

Similarly, I had always wanted to critique my long-standing observation of soap operas, primarily ‘Eastenders’ to which I had been strangely addicted during a particularly 'dark' phase in my life leading up to the illness.

Combining the two, I hope to have conveyed both the experience of 'celebrity exhaustion' and the manipulation of character in those programmes to humorous result.

Ultimately I wanted to give a genuine depiction of mental duress, poke a microscope into popular culture and address today’s obsession with fame, celebrity and the casualties it creates. I wrote it in mind of the actress Natalie Haverstock who I have worked with before and knew that she could sustain the balance between high comedy and tragedy simultaneously.

It is a work of love based on genuine experience and dedicated observation. I simply wanted to share all this with other people, and hope it is enjoyable and informative.

Depression is a nasty business and so is show business. The least we can do is laugh at it all.

Best wishes, Caroline Gold.


*Since this was written the play has been performed some 100 times in many venues and is being translated etc.

Natalie Haverstock has reprised the role magically & masterfully on every occasion since it's debut much to Carolines delight. The most recent Haverstock & Gold production of this play was in September 2007 in a post-Edinburgh three week London transfer as a double bill with Carolines second play HOWARD AND MIMI.

Reviews can be found at www.howardandmimi.co.uk