In 2014, while hiking overseas, Andi Snelling was bitten by a tick.
That single moment changed the trajectory of her life, as she developed multiple tick-borne illnesses including Lyme disease.
“The way my body functioned and operated started to really change. It was sort of gradual at first, but then… there was a distinctive point where I really had plunged into a difficult place of sickness,” she said.
It took three years to be heard by the medical establishment and to receive her official diagnosis. She found herself forced into self-advocacy, thrown into “the medical controversy that is Lyme disease” and fighting to be heard and to receive treatment.
“I feel like I really went to the brink and have since come back from that brink,” Snelling said
She’s still managing that illness medically, but says that emotionally, psychologically and spiritually, it’s art that has saved her.
Snelling is a performer, and her multi award winning show Happy Go Wrong will be at fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne on June 25 – 29.
The show draws from her lived experience with tick-borne illnesses and balances the realities of living with a chronic illness with levity and the joy of living.
“That was the piece that was the answer to not feeling heard so much in the medical establishment,” she said.
Although that wasn’t something she deliberately aimed to do through the show, sharing her personal story with the audience has been “empowering”.
The story centres on a character who needs rescuing after an accident. The narrative follows the attempts to save the character from the depths of despair – a parallel to Snelling’s own rescue through performing. The play allowed her to find the fun and joy of her chronic illness and play with what is a difficult subject, making invisible struggles visible.
“It really just reminded me how much there is a real healing and transformative power to art,” she said.
“I think for a lot of people with chronic illness and disability, the world underestimates how much resilience we have. And a part of that is our ability to still have access to joy in sometimes difficult and painful places.”
As well as performing on stage Snelling works in the disability arts sector, helping people with chronic illness, disability or neurodivergence to indulge their creativity and create art in meaningful, accessible ways.
And she is passionate about breaking down what the world considers to be traditional means of expression for particular people.
“Everyone has a unique voice and a unique creative process – it doesn’t matter what someone’s diagnosis or label is. I’m interested in what we do to tap into that creativity.”
Working as a director, she has supported artists to embrace and incorporate their disability into their art – something she said creates something “unexpected and quite engaging…that speaks to access and inclusion in creating a theatre work”.
Ahead of this week’s performances of Happy Go Wrong, Snelling said she’s looking forward to continuing to break down the barriers around chronic illness.
“The simple message of Happy Go Wrong is just to remind people that life is precious, and it can be precarious. The show is really a celebration of being alive, and that everyone’s life matters.”
Buy tickets to Happy Go Wrong at the fortyfivedownstairs website.