First Fortnight is where arts meet mental health
This year’s festival takes place in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Wicklow, Kildare and Laois.
There will be screenings of Lenny Abrahamson’s film, Frank (about a talented musician who hides himself inside a large, fake head), in various venues, including Cork’s Triskel Christchurch on January 14.
The festival was established in 2010 by David Keegan, whose background is in arts management, and by psychotherapist JP Swaine.
“We’re a good news story in January, challenging the social consciousness around mental health,” says Keegan.
“The festival uses the arts to raise mental-health issues. They can be difficult to talk about.
“It’s not a comfortable place to be, discussing how you feel. But people are getting better at having that conversation.”
The festival is partnered by Mental Health Reform, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services and See Change, the national mental-health stigma reduction partnership.
The HSE is a new partner this year.
It is funding a piece of work called ‘Stories from the Front’, which will be performed at Liberty Hall on January 14.
It tells the stories of people who have experienced mental ill-health, as well as the testimonies of carers and mental-health professionals.
Through recorded narrative and dramatic enactments, the play is a reminder that kindness and understanding are powerful qualities in challenging times.
This interactive piece encourages participation from the audience.
At St Patrick’s Hospital, in Dublin, three events will be staged.
“St Patrick’s is not traditionally used for arts-based events. We’re reimagining the space, presenting events that deal with mental illness and challenging stereotypes.”
One of the shows at St Patrick’s is Masks, which will be performed on January 12.
It’s a play by the Youth Empowerment Service and it advocates for young people who are in hospital with mental-health issues.
Masks, by young people and for young people, deals with schizophrenia, OCD and eating disorders.
The performers use masks to emphasise that people don’t really know what goes on “behind the disguises we wear every day”. A panel discussion will follow the performance.
‘The National Therapy Project’, devised by Eleanor Tiernan, is a humorous piece that says it aims to correct defects in the Irish psyche.
“We invited it to be remounted, after it was on at the Dublin Fringe Festival, where it was sold out,” says Keegan.
“It’s about being a good citizen. It’s an interactive, comically driven piece, where the audience will lie down on yoga mats and look at projected images above them and will talk about how to be better people.”
My Name is Saoirse, the winner of the First Fortnight award at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2014, will be performed at Smock Alley Theatre.
Garnering rave reviews, it won the Emerging Artists of the Year Award, in 2012, at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Fringe Review described it as being “without flaw”.
It’s about a young girl who has to deal with the distress of going through a termination and the impact it has on her mental health, says Keegan.
He says that while the programme addresses mental-health issues, it is drawn up based on the quality of the work.
“Ultimately, that’s why people go to see the festival.”
User Not Found is a play by Stefanie Preissner that looks at young people’s dependence on social media.
It will be performed at the Axis, in Ballymum, on January 13.
Keegan says that facing into the new year can be daunting for a lot of people.
“We programme for the start of the year, so that people can take away a positive message and carry that through.”
- www.firstfortnight.com
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