Your slippers are not straight no matter how much you try to make them so. They will not lie straight; and any deviation from the order of how things must be terrifies you. The slippers must be straight, they must be just so. You have an immense fear that if they are not perfect then something terrible will happen. You know that this is madness, so you try to hide it from those around you. Having your slippers straight calms you, as long as they are parallel and perfect everything is right with the world and the terror inside temporarily subsides. 
      This is an approximate depiction of Obsessional Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is the subject of this new play by Robert Eddison, whose work addresses attitudes to mental health in contemporary society and family life. 
      Commanding Voices beautifully portrays how misunderstood OCD is. It highlights the misconceptions about mental illness that still survive in modern society, showing how much it remains a taboo, an embarrassment to be hidden away. But the play also manages to make telling statements about relationships within families, arguing for the kind of understanding and mutual care that is so important when times are difficult for one or other member of the group. 
      Ben (Glyn Williams) is a sensitive, artistic, talented boy who when under stress or in unhappy circumstances develops OCD. His loving mother, Helen (Katherine Hogarth) who gave up a career as a concert pianist under her husband's influence, does her best for her son but is undermined by her power hungry husband Edward Davenport (Jeremy Child). He a workaholic politician who does not think much to Ben's mental health problems and thinks that the best thing for him would be to go to Oxford to study P.P.E. Ben's health deteriorates with the stress of giving up his own dreams in order to live up to his father's expectations. After much effort from his family the answer to his problem comes from sources closer to home than they initially realise. 
      The play has depth, human feeling and insight. The parent-child relationship is well explored by Glyn Williams and Jeremy Child as Ben and his father. They handle with the great skill the transformation from disillusionment to a new understanding brought about by mutual misfortune. 
      Commanding Voices is not just about OCD, it is also a powerful insight into family life. The combination of themes makes it an excellent and telling piece of theatre.
Elizabeth Shenton