‘The Harry Harlow Project’ - researched, written and performed by James Saunders - is a show unlike any other. It takes you into the laboratory of Harlow’s mind, a place where the extraordinary and the psychotic meet and then begin to unravel with horrifying consequences.

“Love is a wondrous state, deep, tender, and rewarding. Because of its intimate and personal nature it is regarded by some as an improper topic for experimental research. But, whatever our personal feelings may be, our assigned mission as psychologists is to analyze all facets of human and animal behavior into their component variables.” So begins Harry Harlow’s infamous paper ‘The Nature of Love’, delivered in 1958 and now the basis for Saunder’s theatrical solo production.

“What is interesting to me and why I wanted to write something about it was that his own life in parallel was just falling apart. Here was a man who taught the world about love and he was seemingly unable to practice it himself. He had three wives, he neglected his own children, he was a workaholic and alcoholic and actually became clinically depressed himself,” James explains. “He was a man who really was inducing results on these monkeys so he could in fact begin to understand himself.”

The subject matter is dark, the main characters are a psychologist and baby rhesus monkeys and the setting is a clinical lab yet James has interwoven these elements and created a production that brings the internal workings of Harlow’s mind into a physical realm in an evocative thoughtful way. “The play itself is not a linear narrative, what we are doing is looking at this man through a number of prisms which are demonstrated by different performance styles and the different types of writing in an effort to create the laboratory inside his head. Trying to work out what was going on with Harry and portray that without a cast was difficult but I’ve found it has resonated artistically and also ethically with audiences.” A play that illuminates one of the most influential yet vilified pioneers in history in such a surprising way, ‘The Harry Harlow Project’ will definitely leave an impression.

‘The Harry Harlow Project’ Brisbane Powerhouse  August 10-13.