The HSE has welcomed the success of ‘The Mirror Stage’, a theatrical collaboration featuring PhD students researching psychosis, people with lived experience, and Brokentalkers, a company that creates theatrical experiences that foster empathy advocacy. The theatrical work has recently completed its run of performances to full houses at the Project Arts Theatre, Dublin and has also completed a night in the Everyman Theatre in Cork.
Presented by the Brokentalkers, the production was created with and inspired by those who have lived through psychosis.
Congratulating all involved, Linda Moore, HSE Head of Service, Mental Health, Dublin South and Wicklow, explained that:
"for people with mental health issues, and their families and friends, peer-led initiatives are a positive in recovery and ongoing support. The HSE continues to provide resources in this respect. We are delighted, therefore, to note the success of ‘The Mirror Stage’ as a work that challenges stigma and deepens understanding."
Brokentalkers invited people with lived experience of psychosis to answer a simple question: “When you imagine a theatre show about psychosis, what do you see on stage?” The answers are memories and stories that have been woven together with movement, music and visual imagery. The production features a company of dancers who interpret these memories and stories.
Among those invited to provide a post-show talk was Dr Donal O’Keefe, Recovery Coordinator, HSE Dublin South and Wicklow Mental Health Services.
An Irish Times review described the performance as “illuminating”, noting how it showed “unflinchingly real experiences of losing contact with reality.” The Irish Examiner, in their review, noted how “With The Mirror Stage, Brokentalkers again remind us that theatre can do more than simply tell us about others’ experiences – it can represent them in evocative and beautiful ways.” It summed it up as a “powerful experience.”
‘The Mirror Stage’ is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Health Research Board Ireland through a Knowledge Translation Award “Psychosis in the Theatre” to RCSI Department of Psychiatry and PSI-STAR. It is co-produced by the Project Arts Centre, The Everyman, Cork and supported by the FutureNeuro Research Ireland Centre for Translational Brain Science, field:arts and CoisCéim Dance Theatre.
It is also associated with PSI-STAR (a project led by led by Prof David Cotter, Dr Mike Watts, Prof Agnes Higgins and Prof Mary Cannon) a cross-disciplinary PhD psychosis research training programme involving the RCSI, UCD, UCC, DCU, TCD, Galway University and Queen’s University Belfast.