The Mirror Stage – Project Arts Centre – Review
Dates: 5 – 12 Nov

This is a new work by Brokentalkers, which deals with people living with Psychosis. It’s not a problem that is often discussed, possibly due to the stigma attached to it, but a significant proportion of the public will experience it at some point in their lives. The production was developed through a series of interviews with people who have a ‘lived experience’ of psychosis, telling first-hand tales of how it affects their daily lives.

Brokentalkers are a theatre company that produce unorthodox works such as The Examination, Have I No Mouth and The Blue Boy. Their work often explores social issues and are developed over time, working with and interviewing people in the community. This production was funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and the Health Research Board Ireland (among others), so it has a message it wants to deliver, which is to inform and educate the public about mental illness and psychosis.

As with any Brokentalkers production, it is not a straightforward delivery of facts and figures. The four performers on stage (Diarmuid Armstrong, Kévin Coquelard, Bun Kobayashi and Carolina Wilkinson) all have a background in dance, and there is a strong visual sense to the production, with movement and dance. We hear excerpts of the interviews, which the performers act out or interpret in some fashion. There is music (Composition & Sound Design Valgeir Sigurdsson) and a touch of fairytale, with the big bad wolf or wolves featuring!

The production delivers the audience a knowledge of psychosis in a warm, humorous and compassionate manner. It is a difficult topic, and something that is seen in films in a damaging way. We see the results, but not the complex mesh of emotions inside the individual who suffers from the mental illness, causing the problem.  This piece puts you inside the head of the individuals and makes you feel what they feel. The production makes the audience member more in tune with the sufferer and willing to see the individual and not the illness.

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, the Psychosis Ireland Structured Training and Research Programme. Co-Produced by Project Arts Centre, The Everyman, Cork and supported by the FutureNeuro Research Ireland Centre for Translational Brain Science.

Performed by: Diarmuid Armstrong, Kévin Coquelard, Bun Kobayashi, Carolina Wilkinson

Written & Directed by Feidlim Cannon & Gary Keegan

Movement Director Eddie Kay

Creative Producer Rachel Bergin

Set Design Sabine Dargent

Costume Design Sarah Foley

Video Design Jose Miguel Jimenez

Lighting Design Sarah Jane Shiels

Composition & Sound Design Valgeir Sigurdsson

Co-Sound Design Fiona Sheil

Associate Video Design Laura Rainsford

Line Producer Evie McGuinness

Production Manager Jack Leitch

Stage Manager Grace Donnery

Assistant Stage Manager Aoife Malin