changing minds – and so she thinks

Changing Minds Festival

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 22:06:33 +0000

Bringing the topic of mental health out of the medical setting into the mundane reality is an important and laudable endeavour – particularly when it comes to the arts. I fear that some of the less knowledgable, or less open minded, might see any link as implying that severe illnesses can be ‘cured’ by a mindfulness colouring book, or biological disorders solved with only a short dance and a pretty picture.

Changing Minds, the weekend festival at the Southbank Centre about the role of arts in mental health and the intersection between the two was a fabulously balanced collection of events curated and presented by experts (whether that’s professional or from lived experience). Entertaining and informative, the six story building was awash with people curious to learn more.

A complex blur of physical, emotional and environmental triggers, there is no one size fits all solution. It’s the same for physical health of course, but we can see that, so as visual beings tend to find it easier to understand. Art and creativity can do everything from take the edge off to literally saving a life by providing a lifeline. There’s evidence that the arts can have significant impact upon health outcomes in studies by Arts Council and the National Alliance.

The programme was filled with talks covering everything from how humour can take the sting out of shame with comedians Jack Rooke and Sofie Hagen, how therapists can be ore creative (a panel including Nicola Crooke and Paul Gurney), the place of art versus chemicals (Jo Marchant, Rachel Kelly, Danny Cunningham), what the words ‘mental health’ actually mean (Bobby Baker, David Adam) and more.

There was also the opportunity to try some of the ways in which art can enhance wellbeing, and participants were invited to move the body through dance with Yunkong Song, read poetry alongside Ellie Stamp or craft in Amy Brown’s workshops. Stalls from Mind, Rethink, Time To Change, CALM, Biblio, Bethlem, Lambeth LivingWell, B-EAT and Articulate made for a vibrant area of exchange and inspiration. There was also the opportunity to try some of the ways in which art can enhance wellbeing, and participants were invited to move the body through dance with Yunkong Song, read poetry alongside Ellie Stamp or craft in Amy Brown’s workshops.

The weekend was a reminder than open and honest dialogue, mutual partnerships and curiousity are crucial to changing the perspective of mental heath, but also that it is happening. The spectrum between illness and wellness is a grey one. Good mental health isn’t about not being crazy. It’s about being comfortable, communicating, and connecting.

Sometimes art can be the tool to make that happen.

My Beautiful Black Dog

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:50:27 +0000

It’s running late, and if we don’t start soon, I’ll have to miss it.The packed line up at the Southbank’s Changing Minds festival means I’ve booked events back to back and delays are screwing my schedule. A one woman musical soirée about depression – I get where this is going, it’s fine. But I am aware it sold out super quick, and many others gathering around me are talking about how it’s their second or third time seeing the show – they love it so much. Perhaps I’ll stay for a bit.
I stay until the end. And I’m so glad I did.
Taking its name from Winston Churchill’s famous moniker for the depression which reared up throughout his life, My Beautiful Black Dog is not about sadness or gloom, but ultimately a play about life. This is acceptance of life.
Bridget Aphrodite and her boyfriend Quiet Boy tell the story of depression through song, poetry, comedy and glitter – so much glitter. It’s both a performance of celebration and acceptance. There’s not a happy ending, but it does end with smiles.
Shimmer, rainbows, high heels and flamboyance are counterpointed by black holes of despair, self loathing and a void – in both her life and on stage. There was a time in her life when she was either paralytic from alcohol at all times of the day or unable to lift herself up from the heavy weight of depression, once not leaving her bed for three weeks. As she says flippantly, things were so bad that she couldn’t even watch Clueless, the movie she deems to be the best ever.
There’s some beautifully tender moments, like when we see Quiet Boy bringing Bridget the radio to listen to Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service, and their warm smiles at the end, or when Aphrodite reads a punchy and sensitive letter to her familiar. The entire show manages to be tender as well as direct, as slang and made up vernacular becomes infused with the brutally affecting emotion of the situations.
Around me are grinning faces, shimmying chests, people tapping their feet and laughing. But there’s also those being hugged by friends as they cry in recognition of those days Bridget evokes on stage. Insightful and entertaining, it is a joyous piece of entertainment that reflects without knocking the complexities of life. Acknowledging whilst not resigning herself to its difficulties, there’s a sense that Aphrodite finds herself now in a wholehearted embrace of the vicissitudes of life.
As she sings ‘there will be sunshine after the rain’ she adds the comment ‘but it will rain again.’
Fast paced, chaotic and ramshackle, it’s not always an easy and ordered watch – but you know what? Neither is life.
And it’s all the more beautiful for it.