DIRECTED BY ERICA JO LLOYD

Based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” The Paper Hangers takes a modern look at Me’s struggle to deal with postpartum depression when society, particularly her mother and husband, expect a new mother to embrace motherhood and domesticity. Me’s husband John, brings her to the country so that she can recover from childbirth. It’s clear that she can’t be near her child and Me’s Mother takes care of the baby, but both John and the Mother want her healed. Me isn’t sure she can return to normal. Countryside seems to be improving Me’s mood, but when she’s in her bedroom, Yellow—the personification of wallpaper—seems to haunt her with visions of who she should be, what societal expectations are, and how her own mental health might be unraveling. Me continues to fight against all these things and in the end frees herself, but at the loss of her child, husband, and sanity.