Hairdressers hear a lot of gossip. But the tales told in the salon of St Margaret’s Hospital, a mental asylum known locally as the Great Barr Idiot Colony, were so harrowing they inspired an award-winning play about three women sectioned under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act in the 1940s. Their crime? Loving the wrong person.

Born out of the horrifying tales told by one hairdresser to Claire Coaché’s father as he fitted hairdryers at the hospital, The Idiot Colony, which arrives at Jacksons Lane next week, is the first work produced by RedCape Theatre – founded by Claire and two friends in 2007.

“We were all so shocked, I mean, this is our recent history and it happened in this country,” says co-artistc director and performer Rebecca Loukes. “These women hadn’t done anything wrong or illegal. They were incarcerated for having affairs, illegitimate babies, lesbian relations, sometimes even for being considered too flirtatious and then subjected to experimental medication and lobotomies, which played havoc with their sense of self and identity.”

Claire, Rebecca and Cassie Friend, who met 16 years ago while studying drama at the University of Lancaster, began an extensive period of research, meeting with both former inmates and staff. The work premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008, where it won the Total Theatre Award for Best Visual Theatre.

A piece of devised physical theatre set to the strains of Glenn Miller and Rick Astley, the action moves from the 1940s to the 1980s as these tragic stories slowly unravel. Rebecca readily admits performing the emotional material can be “exhausting”, but says the “amazing” audience feedback is “energising”.

“Stories start to come out, they will say, such and such a cousin’s mother was put away, but nobody knew why, or this has happened to my mother, my auntie, my neighbour.”

Joining the ranks of great works such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest and Girl Interrupted, I ask Rebecca why she thinks mental asylums so intrigue us as an audience.

“I think we are interested in this idea of persecution and the power to overcome. That’s what really inspired The Idiot Colony, the strength of the human spirit.”

The Idiot Colony runs from Wednesday, November 18 to Saturday, November 21 at Jacksons Lane, Archway Road, Highgate. Details: 020 8341 4421 or www.jacksonslane.org.uk