F E AT U R E
Wellbeing through the arts
WITH WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY ON OCTOBER 10, BIRMINGHAM’S BEDLAM FESTIVAL
OFFERS A THOUGHT-PROVOKING PROGRAMME OF PERFORMANCES WHICH LOOK AT MENTAL
HEALTH AND WELLBEING THROUGH THE ARTS. AMY NORBURY DISCOVERS MORE
It is estimated that one
in four people in the
UK experience a mental
health problem each year,
and as many as one in
six people in England
suffer from a common
mental health issue such
as anxiety or depression
every week.
That adds up to a
staggering amount of the
population who are, or
have been, affected by
mental ill health. Chances
are that you, or someone
you know, have suffered -
or are suffering right now.
THE THING WILL HAVE
ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT
BEDLAM
Yet mental ill health is still so often seen as a taboo
subject. Something to be ashamed of. Something we
just don’t talk about.
Birmingham’s BEDLAM Arts and Mental Health
Festival aims to change that perception.
Taking place throughout the city from October 1 to
12, BEDLAM will present more than 25 events in a
range of venues to raise awareness of mental health
and wellbeing through the importance of the arts.
Welcoming artists from across the UK to the Second
City, as well as plenty of home-grown talent,
BEDLAM will showcase an exciting and engaging
programme of theatre performances, dance,
movement workshops, art installations, wellbeing
walks, film screenings, family events, Q&A sessions
and a special BEDLAM Symposium.
Performances and exhibitions will take place at
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, as well as at
partner venue the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC),
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and various
community centres around the city. Performance
partners include Sampad South Asian arts and
heritage and, new for 2019, Geese Theatre
Company, who use theatre and drama-based
techniques within criminal justice and social welfare
settings, delivering projects that support the process
of positive change.
Opening the festival is London-born Koko Brown,
who brings her play White to MAC for the first time
blending music and spoken word. Further highlights
include No Bond So Strong, a new commission by
Sampad which is a life-affirming production about
motherhood and holding family together, while
Geese Theatre Company present Playing the Game,
featuring a cast of four who take audiences on a
journey through a century of maternal incarceration.
BEDLAM launched eight years ago as a partnership
between Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health
NHS Foundation Trust and the Birmingham
Repertory Theatre, following discussions between the
NHS Trust and the REP’s associate director Steve
Ball about the ways in which the arts can support
mental health and wellbeing. The festival has run
biennially since.
“This is something which, over the past four years
especially, has become much more prominent and
the profile of which has been very much raised in
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