All the King's fools: re-thinking mental health through learning-disabled performance at Hampton Court Palace (360G-Wellcome-095287_Z_11_Z)

'All the King's fools' is a public engagement project. Its main objective is to explore cultural attitudes and medical responses to the fact that many fools and jesters in the Tudor period were what were then described as 'natural fools', but what doctors today would characterise as 'learning disabled'. 'The Misfits', a company of learning-disabled actors directed by professional jester Peet Cooper, will stage six days of performances at Hampton Court Palace in the very rooms in which court fools performed. The theatre company will be supported by academics with expertise on the history of disability, the body, and medical ethics. Through the participation of learning-disabled actors, this vivid re-enactment will give insight into lives of disabled people at the Tudor court, and will stimulate public debate about the historical and present-day treatment of mental ill-health (broadly defined) and its medical context. Its objective is to challenge stereotypical public perceptions arising out of an under-researched history of disability, especially by encouraging reflection on our assumptions about the inevitability of progress in biomedical attitudes. The project will draw on new historical research and explore further the dramatic history of mental disability, including issues such as the purpose of 'foolish' performances, the likelihood that royal fools had learning difficulties, the limits of a fool's licence, and the fools' mental well-being, as well as general attitudes to, and the treatment of, 'natural fools' in the past and today. Longevity will be achieved by developing a broader research and public engagement project in future.