Artemis Theatre Company

Clare is the Artistic Director of her theatre company, ARTEMIS THEATRE COMPANY. The company performs plays to audiences who are often excluded by mainstream commercial theatre. Previous productions include sell-out national tours of Hearing Voices, Gateway to Heaven and Rights of Passage, all verbatim pieces written by Clare Summerskill. She has also written plays about older LGBT people’s fears, concerns and experiences receiving ‘care’ in later life. Staying Out Late and At the Rainbow’s End, and workshopped and performed a play with disabled LGBT participants, called Vis à Visibility.

For more details about these plays and the work of Artemis Theatre Company visit www.artemistheatre.co.uk

Gateway to Heaven

This production was based on 26 interviews from older lesbians and gay men and was directed by Kate Crutchley. After a rehearsed play-reading at Oval House with a Q&A session afterwards attended by the contributors and an invited audience, the play twice toured to theatres around England, once in Spring 2006 and then later in the Autumn of 2007. A film version was commissioned by Age Concern (now Age UK) and is available from Age UK for free for interested groups or organisations who wish to screen it.

  • “An immaculately performed play about the history of lesbians and gays, taken from the experiences and memories of ordinary people.”
    New Statesman
  • “A fascinating, involving piece which directly engages the audience with its spark, warmth and wit.”
    Theatreworld Internet Magazine

More information about this production can be found at www.gatewaytoheaven.co.uk. Play script available to buy from my online store.

Rights of Passage

Rights of Passage is based on interviews with LGBTQ asylum seekers in the UK and also includes extracts from interviews with those who work with LGBTQ asylum seekers. The show premiered at Chelsea Theatre, London with a week long-run in 2016, and then toured to 12 theatres around England over a six-week period. After many of the performances, there were post-show discussions between LGBTQ asylum seekers, who were invited to the shows, and the cast and audience.

  • ‘The most powerful and accurate portrayal of LGBT asylum seeker stories I’ve ever watched.’ UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group

The script has been published by Tollington Press. To order your copy contact admin@claresummerskill.Real-life stories of LGBT asylum seekers brought to the stage in this brand new verbatim production.

Vis a Visibility

Presented by Artemis Theatre Company in association with Regard, the national LGBT disabled people’s organisation. This production was created from six drama workshops running over six weeks looking at the lives of disabled LGBT people and performed by the participants themselves and directed by Clare Summerskill. The production was staged at People’s Show Studio, Bethnal Green, London and was funded by The Arts Council.

More information can be found at www.visavisibility.org.uk

Hearing Voices

In 2010 Clare toured with a play that she wrote called Hearing Voices, based entirely on testimonies from mental health service users who met in a secure psychiatric hospital.

What really goes on behind the locked doors of a psychiatric hospital? After a suicide attempt Clare Summerskill spent two months in such a place…

In this play we hear the stories of six real-life people who met as patients on an acute secure psychiatric ward in a London hospital, the writer of this piece being one of them. The entire script is taken from interviews conducted by the writer with each of these patients and combined with extracts from the writer’s own diary about her time on the ward. The result is a unique and powerful piece of verbatim theatre, which explores the experiences of Mental Health Service Users behind locked doors.

The stories that are told in this piece represent the “voices” of the patients that were never heard by the consultants or the nurses on the ward. This ground-breaking piece of theatre reveals the views and personal histories of a group of people who are often hidden and excluded from mainstream society and allows their voices to finally be heard.

HEARING VOICES toured to theatres in England for five weeks in the Spring of  2010. The tour was funded by Arst Council England. Clare Summerskill appeared in the show alongside members of her theatre company, ARTEMIS. The play was directed by Lorae Parry. The Set and Costume Designer was Sophia Lovell Smith.

Three extracts of the film version of HEARING VOICES have been posted on YouTube. Visit:

More information is available:

If you want to book Clare to talk about the writing and research of Hearing Voices and about wider issues of mental health and the efficacy of psychiatry, contact admin@claresummerskill.co.uk for availability and costs.

Visit our Online Store to order your own DVD of the filmed version of Hearing Voices

0