Reviews: Hard to Swallow by Mark Wheeller

Hard to Swallow is a true story about teenager Catherine struggling – and ultimately dying – with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. The play's structure is taken from Catherine's seven-year journey with anorexia, as reflected upon by her mother Maureen Dunbar, who wrote a book (which later became a film too) about her daughter.

Wheeller has used the book, as well as interviews with Maureen, to make a semi-verbatim play, with Maureen featured as the central narrator. Added to her narrative is research into eating disorders, and some nonverbatim scenes.

Wheeller has used this fusion style of narration throughout his career, and he would often stage his plays with his own youth acting group. This was the case with Hard to Swallow as well, which makes the text particularly useful for school productions.