Hear Me Raw

Daniella Isaacs

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786823755
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Abnormal Psychology
• Index: Psychology

When did our obsession with wellness start making us sick? Hear Me Raw is an autobiographical play based on the author's experiences of the online wellness industry. The play opens with the protaganist playing the typical health blogger: "She has constructed, with uncanny accuracy, that suspiciously 'together' person, the constant smile and unsolicited advice perfected."( A Younger Theatre ). As the play progresses we see how thisyoung woman's desire for 'clean living' becomes a deepening obsession with restriction and control. It isolates her from others, disconnecting her from family and friends, so that she selfishly does not attend a family shiva because of her food obsessions. Her controlled regimes also significantly affect her mental health. Daniella Isaacs peels back the Instagram filter to reveal the dirty truth behind clean living. Hear Me Raw is an autobiographical account of one woman's journey through the world of contemporary wellness. A blistering piece of theatre about restriction, control and too much turmeric.

Spinning style tracks are playing: One Direction, Rihanna, Little Mix. The positive energy is infectious. A small white table sits in the centre with a white plate of bliss balls on it. There’s also a pristine white blender, a white chopping board with more bliss ball mixture on it, an empty white plate, a white mini fridge and a rustic crate filled with clean living ingredients.

There is a book propped up on a mini book stand, ‘Hear Me Raw’ by Green Girl (Ella Isaacs). It’s all very bright and aspirational.

ELLA is complementing the audience as they come in. She takes sips of water from her marble water bottle. She walks outside and then comes back in. She seems slightly distracted and checks her phone every now and then. She’s sweaty but very glowy. She’s wearing a Fitbit.

She walks onto the stage and gestures for Anna to cut the music.

ELLA: Guys. Hi guys. So sorry. Slight logistical delay. Basically my mum is meant to be here today, I think. And she’s come all the way from North West London. She’d feel horrible to miss the start. I sound like an absolute child. Do you mind if we wait just like two more minutes?

She gestures for Anna to turn up the music. She takes another swig of water and heads towards the door.

Actually, (she gestures for Anna to cut the music) let’s do my Recharge Active Meditation while we wait. I normally do it before the show, but my spin overran, so call it fate, let’s do it together. Anna, will you play the song? It will get us all energised, refreshed and ready to go.

‘Starving’ by Hailee Steinfeld starts playing.

Amazing. Put your things under your chair and then get up. It’s a shared space so if you want to spread out and come up on the stage then please do. Take your legs hip-width apart. And then engage your mula bandha. That’s just a really wellness way of saying your pelvic floor. So girls, imagine you’re holding in a wee. Boys, I’m not really sure. Now, put the weight in the back of your heels and bend right down into a beautiful squat. Ladies, if any of you are on your moon cycle then respect mother flow and just stand up in tadasana. Everyone else get right down. And we’re going to take three deep breaths with an incorporated affirmation. So on the inhale, I want you to think ‘I am’ and on the exhale ‘In control’. Let’s go again – inhale, ‘I am’ and exhale, ‘In control’ and if you can bear it, say it out loud because it makes the affirmation stronger: one more time – ‘I am’…‘In control’.

Amazing. You did it. Now reward yourself by taking a seat. The squat activates one of the biggest muscles in your body so it’s an amazing metabolism booster. And the more muscle you build, the more calories you burn. So you guys will be burning All. Day. Long.

She writes a reserved sign for her MUM: ‘Mrs Isaacs’.

Okay. My mum will have to miss the start.

She references the sign ‘Mrs Isaacs’ and grabs a stall and places it on at the end of the front row.

Anna? Let’s Roar.

An instrumental version of Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ plays.

The slideshow begins.

SLIDE: Green Girl on tour (image of the book cover)

SLIDE: Green Girl on social (links to her Twitter, Instagram, Facebook handles: @GreenGirlUK)

SLIDE: Hello Grasshoppers

Hello Grasshoppers. Well, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ella Isaacs, better known as: Green Girl. I launched Green Girl just over 10 months ago now and I’ve had just over 52,000 individual users since I went live on October 2nd 2016.

SLIDE: 52,000 individual users

SLIDE: October 2nd 2016

If you’d told me a few years ago that I was going to be a health blogger, I would have laughed in your face and probably spat out my Diet Coke. I had just finished drama school training; I used to be an actress, so I promise to keep today very entertaining.

SLIDE: A production shot of ELLA in a show.

Anyway, I’d left drama school and I was looking and feeling really, really gross. I was tired – all the time – bloated, nauseous and just generally bleurgh.

SLIDE: An image of ELLA five years ago looking very healthy.

I ended up working for a very successful and very scary, casting director – who shall remain nameless – in her office in Bermondsey. And I was constantly surrounded by all these gorgeous, glowy actresses. And then three things happened in very quick succession that made me realise, I needed to take control of my life.

Each of the three things are punctuated by ELLA rolling a bliss ball and placing them on the empty white plate.

One. My sister Jodi got engaged and bought a house, and there I was, still living at home, feeling pretty incapable.

Two. My aunty Henrietta was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She’s always had Multiple Sclerosis which meant that she had no control over her body from her neck down. Anyway, I promise this isn’t a sob story but yes, aunty Henrietta got cancer and I hated seeing what the chemo was doing to her body.

And Three. Typing up endless casting breakdowns for size zero secretaries and sexy ex-girlfriends got to me. I went on another failed diet. All my friends and family have done the entire alphabet: Atkins, Cambridge, my sister is Mr Dukan’s biggest fan, 5:2, Weight Watchers. That’s the worst. As a cyclist, basing a food’s worth on a traffic light system is enough to put me off. Even the casting director would put every single morsel of food into her MyFitnessPal.

And it made me feel really angry. And sad. I was sure that there must be another way of making long term, transformative changes. Bear in mind this was about four years ago so the world of Instagram was just beginning. I was on my sister’s hen and her Maid of Honour, Lydia, told me to start following just one account. Green Girl says everything starts with just one small change. And this was mine. I started following Belle Gibson.

SLIDE: A range of glossy images of Belle Gibson and screenshots of various editorial features.

Belle Gibson introduced me to wellness. Belle Gibson transformed me. Belle Gibson showed me that it wasn’t about losing weight or going on a diet. What I needed was to change my life. I did go on to drop three dress sizes but that was just a by-product of getting well.

SLIDE: ELLA’s Instagram is displayed on the screen.

So, I started tracking my wellness progress on Instagram and sharing it with friends...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Chapter