Hard to Swallow

by Mark Wheeller

This play, an adaptation of Maureen Dunbar's award winning book (and film) "Catherine", charts her daughter's uneven battle with anorexia and this family's difficulties in coping with it all.

Genres: Plays, School

Paperback

First published May 30, 1991

Reviews

[Theo Austin-Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Decided to revisit the play I was forced to perform for GCSE Drama as a wee lad of 16 — it’s got the Legz Akimbo Theatre Company all over it, and is, in a word, SHITTT! It’s an “issues” play that is so bloody melodramatic it’s almost Eastenders fodder - a PSA for the stage. And my drama teacher thought that I, the greatest writer and artist West Sussex has ever known, would deign to tread the boards for such prattle? Shame!!

[nao · Rating 2 out of 5]

i wish it would have focused more on the internal suffering of catherine (the victim of anorexia,) rather than the impact of her illness on the rest of the family and how it inconvienced them. despite this, i appreciate how it did not glamourise anorexia, and showed the bruality and pain of it.

[ella lugosi’s dead · Rating 4 out of 5]

finished it in 14 mins, but it was so so powerful.

[Grace Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read quite quickly. A short but powerful read, upsetting.

[Alicia Lovely · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for GCSE drama and remember really enjoying it. I might have to give this a re-read one day.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Low-key fascinating to read this so soon after Cost of Living, because Cost of Living emphasised realistic dialogue with all of its ums and ahs and stumbles and silences. The 43-character cast list here (with the note that 6+ actors can manage the play) includes goats, a troll, puppeteers, and an agony aunt. The dialogue includes call-and-responses, and characters speaking their actions, and so on and so forth...it's so much more actively 'theatre' than Cost of Living.

Hard to Swallow is based on Catherine, and as such it's partly (largely) meant to be educational. It actually hold up pretty well, given that the play is thirty years old, though I'd like to think that Catherine's treatment these days would be more sophisticated. Don't know that I'd want to see this one performed, but I am enjoying reading more plays these days.

[Jessica Ogram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a powerful play. I studied it so much at school and decided to reread it, despite having previously read it many many times and it is still as powerful as ever. It truly shows the effects of eating disorders like anorexia on and individual and those around them. It shows it’s not as straight forward and singular as one may think. Things like this are different for everyone but the effect is still the same. Very very good play. And quite fun to perform parts as well. Easy 5 stars for how powerful and educational it is.

[Jamie Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully tragic story of a young woman struggling with anorexia nervosa and the effects this has on the people closest to her. Heartbreaking to say the least, definitely recommend to anyone and everyone. Mark Wheeler is a truly incredible playwright.

5/5

[Taylor Marie]

i think this book is a good book because i think its good for people who have the desease