Alexithymia: Audiences Look At Life Through An Autistic Lens

Alexithymia is not one the title of an innovative new theatre experience, it is a state that affects around 85% of people on the autism spectrum. Alexithymia is the inability to name or describe feelings, and the focus of a new theatre experience on the 2017 Poppy Seed Festival program.

A_tistic artistic director and Alexithymia playwright, Tom Middleditch, who is diagnosed on the autism spectrum, says alexithymia can be best thought of as the distance one is from what they feel. 

 “Alexithymia is structured to encourage autistic thinking. Each piece explores a theme borne from the condition, alexithymia, but the full experience only emerges once the audience starts to recognise the patterns between the short works. You often hear people say we are all on the autism spectrum and by experiencing this play, audiences will not only learn about autistic thought processes, but also learn how it feels and how they may have experienced these feelings themselves,” said Middleditch. Read the preview here