A patient-built wall in Toronto stands as a monument and an emotional manuscript, and stars in a play
In 1860, patients at an Ontario psychiatric hospital helped to build a brick wall that would conceal them and their lives from the surrounding world for more than one hundred years. The wall still exists as both a monument and emotional manuscript to the lives lived at what then was called an ‘asylum’. This week, during Toronto Mad Pride, The Friendly Spike Theatre Band performs “The Walls are Alive” at the outdoor site of the patient-built wall.
We speak with Ruth Ruth Stackhouse about the wall, the play, and Mad Pride.
