Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Friday, January 23, 2009

Three figures in white dresses comb back their long hair, revealing their faces. It is like watching curtains slowly part on lives that have been hidden away from view.

Last night Andrew organised tickets for Tim, Stuart and me to go and see The Idiot Colony at the ICA in London's wet and rainy West End.

The Idiot Colony is a damning indictment of the system which branded hundreds of women in the 1940s and 1950s 'moral defectives' for grievous crimes like homosexuality or having a baby as a result of childhood rape. These women were locked away in institutions on the say so of a single relative and the signature of two GPs.

Set in the hospital's hairdressing salon in the 1980s The Idiot Colony tells three such stories through flashback. The three women are now much older and in between listening to Rick Astley and the Birdie Song they remember the terrible events that caused them to be incarcerated. It is at times moving, at times funny but ultimately the horror comes from the mundanity.

Great show.

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