WHEN actors Poppy Hardwicke and Lauren Mooney set out to tell a story about chronic fatigue, a condition they both live with, they called their performance Tired All The Time – it’s hard to think of a more appropriate name for the work they produced during a three-day R&D residency at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre.

Their project is part of the Lighthouse’s Sanctuary artist development scheme that enables emerging and established artists to play with new ideas as they begin to bring new work to life.

“TATT is just at the beginning of its adventure,” says Lauren. “In fact, this is the first time that we have been together, in the room, trying out ideas.”

‘Tired All The Time’ is a phrase often used by healthcare professionals to describe a patient’s persistent and prolonged symptoms of fatigue. TATT is a theatre show which explores ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), and the misconceptions surrounding the illness.

Lauren was diagnosed in 2017 during her GCSEs, while Poppy found she had the condition at the age of 12 while she was living in Gibraltar. She missed two full years of school. “I fell far behind my peers, lost all of my friends, and felt like I had been robbed of my teenage years,” she says.

“Having a name for my condition didn’t erase the struggles I had already endured, but it gave me something vital: validation. My story is not unique – experiences of dismissal, misunderstanding and isolation are common for people with CFS. The details may vary, but the pattern is heartbreakingly familiar.”

Having met on a film set in 2023, Lauren and Poppy met up again earlier this year on the CREATE! programme hosted by b-side, Activate and Arts by the Sea where they discovered their shared experience of CFS. Both had experience of Sanctuary with other companies – Lauren with OffPiste Theatre’s Handle With Care and Poppy in Sisata’s production of Peter Pan – and applied.

“We wanted to use theatre to create awareness for this illness that has heavily impacted both of our lives,” Lauren explains.

They shared their personal experiences in depth and invited others with the illness to contact them online: “We had an incredible response from so many people, and we are so thankful to every person who responded to us and shared their story,” says Lauren.

They used these responses to experiment with physical theatre, verbatim performance and improvisation, turning ideas that had only been in their heads into pieces they could begin shaping. Their illness notwithstanding, both are determined to move things forward and see TATT take flight as a fully-fledged piece of contemporary theatre.

“Without Lighthouse, this project would still be an idea in our heads. We are eternally grateful for the opportunity to explore this project in a rehearsal room. The trust, resources and guidance resulted in three beautiful days of exploration, discovery and play. We have found how important this project is, not only to us, but to the entire community we are representing.”