Mad Women: Portraying mental health in theatre

As a unique creative experiment, Chilean director and playwright Constanza Hola Chamy is directing in parallel both a professional cast and a community cast of her new play Mad Women. Highlighting bipolar disorder, it’s inspired by the lives and deaths of three outstanding Latin American artists: the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Chilean singer-songwriter and visual artist Violeta Parra and Columbian painter Judith Marquez, and their struggles with mental health. The professional actors are from the same country as their characters, while the community cast have volunteered to participate in the project, having experienced mental health challenges themselves. They’re women from underrepresented sections of the community in the East End of London, which is where some of the performances will take place. ‘Mad Women’ is fighting the stereotypes and stigma of what it has historically meant to be a woman with mental health conditions, in different countries, through sometimes brutal conversations about sexuality, motherhood, gender oppression and the role of women in the arts, as artists and muses. Felicity Finch follows Constanza as she and her international creative team collaborate and face the challenges of working with the two casts: juggling rehearsals, coping with a very tight deadline, while making sure they are sensitive to the needs of the four women in the understandably vulnerable community cast. Constanza is also making plans to take her play and this unique way of working to different communities of women internationally, including her native Chile. If you need support following anything you’ve heard in this episode, there’s information at bbc.com/actionlinePresenter and Producer: Felicity Finch Exec producer: Andrea Kidd(Photo: Professional Cast of Mad Women. Credit: Héctor Manchego)