The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, a short film by graduating Performance Art student Liz Griffiths will be shown on the big screen in Clayton Square until Thursday 8th June. Stylistically the film adheres to the tradition of silver screen era movies; silent in speech but accompanied by music and punctuated by text dialogue, and possessing an endearingly clumsy camera style. It follows a despairing wife who perpetually attempts to shake her psychologically confused husband from his coma of lack of recognition.Ìý Contemporary theatre’s great innovator Peter Brook first adapted Peter Sack’s influential collection of case histories studying bizarre doctor patient scenarios, of which the title of Liz’s film is taken.Ìý The project initially was going to take the form of a street performance touring round cities in the UK. But for various reasons, including difficulty encountered with gaining permission off bureaucratic local authorities, this idea was sidelined.
 | | The film is screened until June 8th |
It was also going to make use of the original Peter Brook script, but evolved making use of its performers physical awareness rather than relying on preset dialogue. "I found it really liberating to make these decisions," Liz told me. "Once I had dispensed of the street theatre idea and the script, the piece began to find itself. Also, working with such responsive actors helped- I hardly had to give much direction, we improvised the scenes and they understood exactly what I intended." Liz’s background in dance clearly influences the highly physical nature of the film, the actors relate in body language splendidly so much so that it appears choreographed, though she assures me it was not. It contains many comic elements, bizarre and disconcerting human relationships that, though not immediately funny, are treated in a manner that makes light of the complexities of human neurology in a disconnected tone. Somehow Liz’s film reminds us that, though full of sadness and misunderstanding, human life is ultimately humorous. Liz Griffiths graduates from Liverpool Institute of Performance Arts this summer. She is very grateful to the fantastic opportunity given by theÌý Big Screen Liverpool to see her work on such a large scale and with such a huge audience. This is however just the beginning. ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’ will be shown in film festivals from Brighton to Oxford and beyond, and Liz is in the process of setting up her own theatre company with the help of LIPA’s Angel Fund. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Big Screen in Clayton Square until Thursday June 8th. | 
