Young performers challenge stigma of poor mental health

Provider The Warren Street Theatre Group/HealthBeat

Name Let’s Talk About It

Summary Youth club members perform a short play on the streets of Hull to educate passers-by about issues surrounding mental health

One in 10 children experience mental health problems according to the Mental Health Foundation and these problems can be worsened by the stigma and discrimination they provoke. To challenge these perceptions, young people in Hull are performing short plays in public spaces about having a mental health problem.
Youth club The Warren leads the project. The theatre group was formed as part of the club’s HealthBeat programme, which is funded by the local primary care trust.

The work started six months ago with a series of workshops about mental health that invited all members of The Warren to take part. A group of eight 15- to 25-year-olds formed the final group. These young people attended five sessions facilitated by HealthBeat co-ordinator Lisa Marris and other staff at The Warren.

Marris, who has 10 years’ experience as a counsellor and is training as a psychodramatist, helped the young people explore their understanding of mental health. “They talked about their own experiences of mental health, and stories from their families and friends,” she says. “They said young people constantly feel judged and that mental health is a taboo subject.”

These discussions became the basis of a script written by the group. Marris says the scriptwriting was a challenge, since the group had conflicting opinions. “There were some heated debates about what should go in,” she says. “But we got over that and managed to work with the tension. They learned that you can have tension and discussion, without having to walk away from the group.”

The young people come from diverse backgrounds. Some are in part-time employment, others are unemployed and some are excluded from school. Four of the troupe became the performers while the others worked as directors, writers and producers.

The play was designed to be performed in the streets and to be accessible to audiences that might only watch part of it as they passed by. They broke the performance into four separate stories, each told by one actor representing a different aspect of mental health. One portrays a young person with psychosis who asks the audience to accept the voices she hears. One is diagnosed with depression. Another represents society’s judgmental attitude and suggests people with a mental health problem should “snap out of” their behaviour and “get a job”.

Reaching out

The final character tries to reach out to the audience, but is afraid to disclose the truth about their problem. The play ends with all four characters imploring the audience to talk about mental health problems.

One of the actors, 15-year-old Mat Nadin, says he hopes the project will encourage people to be more open about mental health problems. “We’re saying please don’t judge or label young people who are having a hard time,” he says. “It’s easy to call someone crazy or to tell them to snap out of it when you don’t understand what they’re dealing with.”

Marris says the response from the public has been largely positive. “Some of the audience didn’t see it from beginning to end, but they still came up to tell us what an amazing thing we were doing,” she says. “One person told us she had suffered from depression her whole life and the message we were putting out was brilliant. She really related to it.”

Marris says the eight group members have also benefited from the project. “This has allowed us to have some really honest discussions,” she says. “The group have been able to speak openly about their own struggles and they’ve bonded. They were scared and nervous about performing on the streets, but they did it and it’s allowed them to build their confidence.”