Port Hardy – The Theatre for Living, in collaboration with the Mount Waddington Health Network Addictions Services Planning Committee, will be presenting the mental health play ‘maladjusted’ on Feb. 4 at the Civic Centre in Port Hardy.
maladjusted is a powerful interactive play, originally produced in 2013, and created and performed by patients and caregivers. The play addresses issues in our mental health system that are creating barriers to human-centered care.
The play is performed once, all the way through, so the audience can see the situation and the problems presented. The play is then run again, with audience members able to “freeze” the action at any point where they see a character engaged in a struggle. In maladjusted this means trying to receive or give human-centered care and failing. An audience member yells “stop!”, comes into the playing area, replaces the character he sees struggling, and tries out his/her idea to create human-centered care. The other characters respond, not to “make it better”, not to “make it worse”, simply to be truthful, drawing on their own lived expertise. maladjusted enables diverse audiences, made up from the mental health community and the general public to transform the theatre into a centre for dialogue, informing policy creation. Community Action reports created at each event on the tour (these are ideas generated from the local community) will help guide local agencies to humanize their policies.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the play will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the event are $10 or no charge. For more information call Linda Cochrane at (250)956-4461 ext. 66252