The Asylum Workshop: a performers perspective

The Asylum Workshop: a performers perspective is the fourth in the Grangegorman Histories podcast series exploring the histories of the Grangegorman area of north, inner-city Dublin. Evie O’Brien is an actor and performer. As a drama student at the Grangegorman campus of TU Dublin. Evie played a central role in the Asylum Workshop play, a documentary-drama written by playwright Colin Murphy, directed by Peter McDermott and performed by final year TU Dublin students in June 2023, supported by Grangegorman Histories. In this short podcast, Evie shares her experience of how engaging with the play shaped her understanding of the history of the Grangegorman site as a one of the first TU Dublin students to move on to the site. She reflects on how mental health has been viewed in Ireland in the past, and how the physical buildings on Grangegorman serves as a reminder of the importance of dismantling the stigma that surrounds mental health in the future.