**PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS NOW TAKEN PLACE**
Aaron - a play written, produced and directed by Flo Petrie and inspired by her brother Adam, who has PWS - takes place at The Electric Theatre, in Guildford, and we are delighted that all ticket sales from the performance on 16th July will go to PWSA UK, so please come along to support this production and help raise valuable funds to help us continue supporting our amazing PWS community!
Here, Flo provides some background to the production and how her experiences of growing up alongside a sibling with PWS inspired her to write this play.
For much of the time my brother, Adam, is the sweetest boy in the whole world. He's full of affection and love, in fact, his favourite thing to do with us is to just sit and watch a movie together. He’ll sit there, playing with his string, so grateful that you’ve taken the time to sit and watch something with him. And of course, when you watch a film with Flo, you get popcorn! (Which makes the deal even sweeter).
Adam is truly a wonderful brother, and I would honestly not change any part of him for the world. He is uniquely him and I love him deeply. But it was a difficult childhood growing up with him. He was aggressive at times, often walloping us out of anger. His needs very much came over my brother and I’s. Life revolved around food which led to my own disordered eating habits. Unfortunately for Adam, we had an incredibly turbulent childhood moving countries four times. For someone with autistic traits, this was difficult for Adam to adjust to, and it felt like each time we moved his behaviour became worse.
Bless Adam, looking back on it now you can see how misunderstood he was. How as a child I didn’t get it either. Adam was Adam, so why does he get to swear and not get punished? Why does he hit us and not get grounded? Why can he break into our rooms and smash our things and not receive any retribution? None of this made sense to me when I would always get told off and punished.
But now I can see that I didn’t understand, what eight-year-old would? It was only as I started having freedoms, learning to drive a car, going to university, and having romantic relationships that I realised Adam had all he ever was going to have at the age of 10. There was nowhere for him to go, no jobs that he could get, and no real independence for himself.
When we lived in the UK, we used to attend PWSA events. We would go to this one in Scotland which was in a lovely hotel. It had this amazing pool which felt like you were swimming in a wizard’s lair. It wasn’t until recently that mum reminded me that these weekends had been PWSA weekends. I remember them being these fun weekends away where we could play and pretend to be mermaids in the swimming pool. I guess that shows how wonderful PWSA is as a charity. That they make everyone feel special, even if you don't have PWS, we are all one big family, doing it all together, with no differences between us.
I recently had the pleasure of attending a Sandy Balls weekend with Adam. It was so lovely to see how upbeat everyone was. To witness so much care and understanding the organisers had towards everyone. I feel incredibly thankful that such an organisation exists for my brother. It saddens me a lot to think of him not living life to the same potential that I can live mine. But I take a great deal of comfort that with the PWSA his life will BE the best it can be.
Writing and creating Aaron (my play about Adam – I know it is a little confusing) has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. To see how happy it makes Adam, knowing that I wrote a play about him, how important his life is, and how he has brought such joy to our lives is beautiful.
It also provides us, unsung heroes, an opportunity to voice our lives. We’ve been silent supporters nurturing these wonderful people in our lives. The play documents what it truly means to live with this condition. It captures the trials and tribulations, the impact on family life and what a life with PWS means in the future.
It would be wonderful if you could come and support this fantastic production. To see how I've tried to voice all our lives and raise much needed awareness on this condition!
All box office sales on the 16th of July will go to the PWSA to help them continue supporting so many families and people with PWS.
Aaron is being performed at The Electric Theatre, Guildford on the 14th, 15th and 16th of July (with the 16th being the charity night).
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