The Treehouse
The Treehouse is a play exploring the intersections of Madness* with family, grief and growing older. The play centres a moving design concept — the actors will physically build the set every night.
This project is proudly Mad-led. ‘Madness’ is used broadly here to encompass a range of experiences and political realities that emerge from complex and enduring mental illness, psychosocial distress and experiences that diverge markedly from consensus reality.
Early concept sketch by designer Kenneth MacLeod.
Play sharing and panel discussion
The play was presented as a staged reading in July 2025, Glasgow. The reading was directed by Morna McGeoch and featured performers Yota Kallini and Oliver Dhir. The design was presented as a three-dimensional model.
After the play reading, the audience was invited to join the creative team for a discussion on how we can better hold Madness in one another and our communities, and the role of art in this work.
R&D — Glasgow, summer 2025
The Treehouse is a play exploring the intersections of Madness* with family, grief and growing older. The play centres a moving design concept — the actors will physically build the set every night. The script and design are being developed together from the very earliest stages of the project.
This project is proudly Mad*-led and sits under the umbrella of Mad arts. ‘Madness’ is used broadly here to encompass a range of experiences and political realities that emerge from complex and enduring mental illness, psychosocial distress and experiences that diverge markedly from consensus reality. The development process explored themes of severe mental illness, familial grief (loss of parents/siblings) and psychiatric violence/incarceration in an open-ended way. Part of the purpose of the development was to explore ways of making work that draw on these lived experiences while remaining meaningful, ethical and anchored in Mad community.
Theatre Green Book
The R&D was conducted to the Advanced Production standard of the Theatre Green Book. This means that we made a commitment to using a majority of found and recycled materials in the design of this project, setting s up to continue meeting this standard with future production. You can find out more about the Theatre Green Book here.
Development artists
In partnership with Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, this development project included roles for two emerging disabled artists to gain paid experience and be mentored by established professionals.
We were delighted to welcome Bo Hogan as Assistant Director and Georgia Dunn as Assistant Designer.
People
Playwright & Lead Artist Kerry Lane
Designer Kenneth MacLeod
Director Morna McGeoch Fergus Arnott
Assistant Designer Georgia Dunn
Assistant Director Bo Hogan
Performer: Jessie Yota Kallini
Performer: Mac Oliver Dhir
Access PAs: Ella Bowsher (audition workshops), Caroline Mentiplay (dev week and sharing)
BSL Interpreters: Elliot Webster-Mockett, Amy Cheskin
Additional development performers: Ben Kay, Chelsea Grace, Abigail Underwood
This development was supported by partnerships with Birds of Paradise Theatre Company and Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, and funded by the Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals.