The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story but not for the faint-hearted. Written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and first published in the New England Magazine, it is considered an important early work of American feminist literature for its illustration of the attitudes towards the mental and physical health of women in the 19th century.

Narrated in the first person, the play is a collection of diary entries of a young woman who appears to be suffering from postpartum depression. Raw, gloomy and painfully honest, the play shows the peculiar reality of one woman who is forced into confinement having to deal with the intense emotions of labour and motherhood.

Following a successful November premiere, and shows in December, extra performances of The Yellow Wallpaper will take place in January. Just four performances will happen at Aigaia Theatre Nicosia – on January 8, 9, 15 and 16 – bringing this Greek-language adaptation directed by Maria Iole Karolidou and with Antonia Charalambous on stage.

The play shows a woman being placed in isolation by her husband, who is also her doctor, in a country house, intending to prescribe a rest cure for what he calls “a temporary nervous depression—a slight tendency to hysteria,” a diagnosis common enough for women of that time. Locking her in the children’s room of the house, he forbids her any creative work and imposes on her a strict diet and medication, as well as the use of electrotherapy. He also deprives her of contact with all her family members, even her baby.

With no other stimulus than the wallpaper in the room, the woman focuses on its designs and patterns, which gradually transform into an autonomous entity, with which the narrator will develop an obsessive relationship. The consequences of her confinement gradually emerge, while she seems to be on a journey of self-awareness, which will exceed – due to the specific circumstances – the limits of rationality.

Gilman’s text is a feminist manifesto against the oppression of women and a sharp critique of the patriarchal society of the late 19th century. The author boldly highlights issues such as women’s mental health and the stigma of mental illness, confinement and the imposition of control over the female body, the oppression of women through married life, the devaluation of female identity, women’s lack of freedom of speech, the exclusion of women from work and intellectual creation.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story. January 8, 9, 15, 16. Aigaia Theatre, Nicosia. Sundays:7.30pm. Mondays: 8.30pm. €12. In Greek. www.soldouttickets.com.cy