Guest Blog: 'I'm Committed to Celebrating Diversity on Stage': Director P Burton-Morgan on Exploring Neurodiversity in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE POISON WOOD

Sherlock Holmes is arguably one of the world's most famous and beloved characters in literature and in our new musical, which updates the action to contemporary climate-crisis afflicted London, his neurodiversity is brought electrically to the fore. 

It doesn't take a world-class detective to recognise Arthur Conan Doyle's eponymous hero is written as someone with autistic traits, even if they didn't have the language to articulate such things explicitly, back in Victorian Britain.

It felt really exciting to me as an autistic writer/director to both lean in to his neurodiversity - which we explore in the script/plot for new British musical Sherlock Holmes And The Poison Wood, as well as through neurodiverse Projection Designer Matt Powell's immersive projection design, making visible the workings of Sherlock's infamous mind palace as well as his emotional overwhelm and anxiety.

In our updated production his historic opium addiction becomes disordered eating, specifically ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) which is so prevalent among autistic people, and feels a really important story to be telling in a culture where generally only women are represented as suffering from eating disorders (besides Heartstopper as a great exception.)

Beyond the man himself, we also explore the range and nuance of a neuro-spicy world through two other explicitly neurodivergent characters: Moriarty (in our version a woman) and a non-binary climate activist character called Yorri - which also allows us to explore the intersection of gender and autism and help dispel some of the other existing media tropes and stereotypes of autism as a predominantly (cis) male condition. So it's both thrilling and a huge privilege to find a new way to bring these characters to life that both honours the original and simultaneously explodes some of the unhelpful myths about how our neurodiverse brains and bodies work.

As an autistic and non-binary writer and director I'm profoundly committed to representing and celebrating diversity on stage, so it's really exciting to be collaborating with a majority neurodiverse, deaf and disabled acting company (and creative team) on bringing this ambitious new musical to life.

Obviously all those additional needs in the room bring their own challenges - and a fair amount of noise (which is a lot for some of us to process!), so making sure the process has been as inclusive and supportive for everyone has been really important to me. We definitely haven't always got it right, but small things like sharing schedules further in advance, having a break out quiet space (actually an old portacabin where they house laundry which I've affectionately titled Narnia) and engaging a wellbeing practitioner as a listening ear for the inevitable moments of overstimulation and overwhelm have been super useful for the company (and myself!)

Like so many people for whom the pandemic was a wakeup call to their neuro-spiciness, despite a lifetime of being told I'm autistic by others, it's taken me 40 years to recognise, step into and celebrate that part of who I am. I hope our show goes some small way towards helping others do the same (especially those socialised as female for whom diagnosis is so often a much slower and later process.) And for all the neurotypicals out there, I hope we give you a little insight into the rich and elaborate diversity of our inner worlds. Along with a top class murder mystery musical!

Like so many people for whom the pandemic was a wake up call to their neuro-spiciness, despite a lifetime of being told I'm autistic by others, it's taken me 40 years to recognise, step into and celebrate that part of who I am.

I hope our show goes some small way towards helping others do the same (especially those socialised as female for whom diagnosis is so often a much slower and later process.) And for all the neurotypicals out there, I hope we give you a little insight into the rich and elaborate diversity of our inner worlds. Along with a top class murder mystery musical!

Sherlock Holmes And The Poison Wood by Metta theatre runs at the Watermill Theare from 2 February – 16 March

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