Inspired by the ancient legend of a man who spent 35 years in solitude in the Egyptian desert, this ensemble performance explores, through song and body, landscapes where mental health and religious experience collide. How to treat a religiously-orientated mental illness?

This is a problem faced today by NHS psychiatrists in treating patients who believe they are possessed by spirits. Is there a limit to what Western medicine can heal, when faced with a dark night of the soul? With insight from psychiatry and anthropology, this show plunges soul-first into the human experience of demon possession.

The Mechanical Animal Corporation’s production of The Temptation of St. Anthony is a Wellcome-Trust supported project exploring ‘spirit possession’ – an area where mental health and religious experience overlap.

There will be a one off talk on the topic the show touches upon on 17th August.