Ideas of staging Stone Frigate began after artist Matt Stokes encountered stories about HMS Standard’s existence, followed by further archival research into the history of Kielder Camp.

 

What was immediately of interest to Matt about the Camp was its experimental and forward thinking nature, but also the Navy’s decision to bring it into existence whilst engaged in war. HMS Standard promoted close mentor contact, fresh air, physical activity, discussion, occupational therapy and learning as tools for therapy. These aspects now seem commonplace in mental health, behavioural and trauma care, and yet the Camp’s existence is relatively unknown, even in the locale where it once stood.

 

In contrast, some accounts of HMS Standard indicate conflicts between the documented successes versus the real experiences of being sent to the camp – of its intimidating and draining atmosphere, due not only to the Camp’s location and its regimes, but also to the intensity and volatility of ratings posted there. Although the Navy underscored that it was not a penal establishment nor a hospital, HMS Standard’s intake are labelled as both “inmates” and “patients” within official and medical accounts. This suggests that there was uncertainty around the purpose of HMS Standard. However, perhaps this was secondary in the eyes of the Navy, as one Camp psychiatrist writes that a “ … value of the Camp has been its presence as a sort of trump-card in the hand of the depot psychiatrist, to be played in the face of rank non-co-operation, half-heartedness, and possibly malingering.” Myth surrounding the Camp was possibly more powerful than its actual physical function. Who would want to be sent there? Who would want to be tarnished by the C/Q label? A label of abnormality, distrust, liability and shame.

 

Sixty two years on much has changed regarding mental health and its awareness, but its not uncommon for such stigmas to surface. This connects Stone Frigate to the present day and is a core reason behind its creation and design.

 

 

ROLE PLAY TOOLS

 

The general style of play will be social-realist. However, colour codes will play a pivitol role in Stone Frigate, being introduced to trigger each character's mood or response to a situation to change, depending on where the character is, the circumstances they are placed in or who the character encounters. Mostly colour will be incorporated into uniforms in a obvious way – likely worn by replacing a black tape bow traditionally worn at the front of a ratings jumper and/or by trade badges worn on the right arm. So, for example, cast as a rating you may have been categorised as having a personality that tends towards schizoid. You feel repulse at the colour orange. A fellow rating sits next to you in the mess hall wearing an orange tape. This prompts you to decide how to respond to both the other character and situation. In contrast, for another character cast with constitutional timidity, the colour orange will mean something different, such as it being a ‘safe’ colour, which will provoke a different response.

 

This use of coding draws from contemporaneous medical investigations regarding colour relative to psychiatric states, notably research that took place during the 1930s by Siegfried E. Katz, as published in the 'Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology'. This study used a limited palette of six colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet) presented to psychiatric patients to test what colour preferences might exist between patients with different mental health conditions.

 

Stone Frigate will use a similar, distinctive colour range, and each player will receive a simple colour code reference as part of their character sheet.

 

Occasionally, these code colours will also be introduced through objects within the settings (or a specific activity) in the same way – and in a way that’s obvious to players.

 

This tool of colour as a prompt also acknowledges ‘Delirium’, a Danish Larp that took place in 2010.