It’s all about the play at Youth Conference in Eastleigh

The Commissioner’s Youth Commission team has been spreading the word that ‘it is good to talk’ by showcasing their play, all about mental health at the Eastleigh Youth Conference recently. The play was commissioned (for free) by the team and involved various young people with past and present members helping out.

Emalene Hickman, a former member of the team worked alongside the current members to create: ‘A Hunt for Clarity-A Journey Through Mental Health’ which looks to paint the picture of what it feels like to be a young person experiencing mental health issues. The cast is formed of young people who have been through these experiences and they tell their story in a heartfelt, honest and authentic way.

Emalene says: “Mental health can be a difficult subject to approach. I personally felt that drama/performance would be a good medium for this as it can be informative and explorative at the same time. Dramatisation allows a conversation to be started more naturally than just asking a room full of people to talk about mental health.”

Alison Romaine says:  “The play engaged audiences with bite sized episodes of different structures which gained momentum – the unpredictability gave an insight into the mind of an anxiety sufferer. The personalisation showed how invested the players were – their different valuable experiences then highlighted the wider variation of mental health issues that exist in lots of forms.”