Stage play, art exhibition mark mental health awareness event in Chennai

An art festival promoting mental health awareness was organised by the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), in association with the Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts University, here on July 31.

Former IAS officer C.K. Gariyali was the chief guest of the event, which formed a part of the dissemination of findings from Project PIECEs. Project PIECEs is a multicentric collaborative research programme funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), U.K., and led by Victoria Bird of Queen Mary University of London, in India and Pakistan.

Kael Theatre presented the stage play, Mudiyum Mudiyathu, which portrayed various mental health conditions and their impact on daily life. Persons with lived experience of serious mental illness also performed in the production, which was written and directed by Kael Theatre founder P. Jayachandran.

Addressing the gathering, Ms. Gariyali described the play as moving and said it portrayed the pain and distress experienced by persons with mental illness and their families. R. Mangala of SCARF said, “Mainstream art often misrepresents mental illness. The stage play experience taught our team to approach mental health portrayal with sensitivity and responsibility.”

An exhibition of artworks created by persons with lived experience of mental illness was also organised at the venue. K. Poomalini, Registrar of the Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts University, spoke.