I went to see the show Ruby Wax - Losing It at the Duchess Theatre in London this week. It's a performance of two halves, the first involves Wax telling the story of her own breakdown and admission to The Priory and railing against the artificiality and shallow nature of our society and its obsession with fame.
Wax is accompanied by her friend the pianist and singer Judith Owen and while the show contains lots of serious messages it's funny too and the half went by quickly.
The second half is where the whole experience really starts to have some resonance though. The performing stops and Wax and Owen, who has also experienced depression, just sit at the front of the stage and take questions from the audience.
I've been to many conferences where the floor is opened up to questions and they usually prove painfully difficult to generate. There were no such problems here though and members of the audience shared their experiences of mental illness and how they dealt with it and were happy to discuss issues such as stigma and access to services.
The interactive element made Wax's first half performance make sense as part of her mission to get people to open up about mental health to help tackle stigma and provide support to each other. She revealed she hopes to launch a website soon where people with depression can support each other - a mental health Mumsnet. The theatre is also playing host to a number of open forums where people can listen to expert speakers and get advice from professionals.
(Pic: Trevor Leighton)
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