Now, Thursday also happened to be Mental Health awareness day, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been able to see Richard's courageously autobiographical play on that day - both as a way to respectfully mark it and to provide me with the courage to speak even more openly about my mental health issues.
Over the Wall Picking Apples is the most poignant and beautiful take on mental health that I've ever seen on stage - deep, raw and humorous, and oh so greatly inspiring! Richard opted for full disclosure and the response has been respect, resonance and the spread of awareness as each audience member walks out with a smile on their lips and a tear in their eye. Richard's performance in itself is strong and engaging (no surprise for me there, after his powerful performance as Lord Capulet in Romeo & Juliet, for the aforementioned WTF); Ged Stephenson's direction certainly brought out the best of Richard's talents, and Kasha Miller's design of the production is compelling indeed!
Richard's main objective with this project was to educate his audience regarding bipolar disorder and mental health in general, as well as the experience of the thwarted concept of social norms regarding masculinity and how this affects mental health - and Richard achieved this brilliantly!
As Richard finished the evening with a Q&A, numerous questions came up, including how Richard dealt with the consequences of opening up to his wife and children. I can understand that to be a tantalising idea for most people, and I loved Richard's answer about the importance of being open, honest and sensible. Communication, communication, communication! That was the main message in his answers to most of the questions - and in the play itself, in its own way! My question was about how to deal with the consequences of being open with your parents... To me, there is something intrinsically terrifying in letting your parents know that something traumatic happened to you and that they can't do anything about it now. I can feel their pain and impotence and it shatters my heart just to think about them suffering with that. You see, they already know about my mental health condition, but they don't know the reason for my PTSD. I needed to know what Richard thought, and asked for his advice. Wisely enough, he replied he doesn't do advice - he is after all not an expert - yet he remarked again on the same message of Communication! Communication! Communication!
I relaxed into my question. I had just watched a grown man explore his full life in front of a room full of avid listeners. I cried for several minutes after the show was over because of how much I could relate to his experience. At that moment, in that room, there were no boundaries between age, gender or nationalities, even though his experience came from the lacks of communication in masculinity and mine from the external dissatisfaction with my femininity. His experience came from a Britain in the process of reconstruction while mine came from a Mexico with a lack of understanding mental health conditions. His experience included a wife and grown children while mine has a newly-found husband after years of being single and parents who are only now feeling comfortable with how well I'm doing.
(Disclaimer: I went from bad to worse over the course of about 8 years and my family were rightfully worried about whether I'd be able to make it to where I am or not. I would not be here now without their support!)
Anyway, at that moment I felt grateful that there are people in the world like Richard, who can explore this openly and inform and inspire people through their work. I have an incomplete book which I started when I was 11, and a blog entry that I wrote 2 weeks ago, and a series of unfinished entries, chapters and notes in-between which I plan to bring out one day and post and publish and preferably finish first! Some will come out in the form of fiction or poems, but all will hopefully continue the thread of Communication! Communication! Communication! that people like Richard have bravely started...
... and some have already been put out there by me, of course, in the many pages of this blog and in my already published books, but the journey of healing and growth compels me to bring out even more from the depths of my soul.
I just hope I can inspire people just as much!
Over the Wall Picking Apples is the most poignant and beautiful take on mental health that I've ever seen on stage - deep, raw and humorous, and oh so greatly inspiring! Richard opted for full disclosure and the response has been respect, resonance and the spread of awareness as each audience member walks out with a smile on their lips and a tear in their eye. Richard's performance in itself is strong and engaging (no surprise for me there, after his powerful performance as Lord Capulet in Romeo & Juliet, for the aforementioned WTF); Ged Stephenson's direction certainly brought out the best of Richard's talents, and Kasha Miller's design of the production is compelling indeed!
Richard's main objective with this project was to educate his audience regarding bipolar disorder and mental health in general, as well as the experience of the thwarted concept of social norms regarding masculinity and how this affects mental health - and Richard achieved this brilliantly!
As Richard finished the evening with a Q&A, numerous questions came up, including how Richard dealt with the consequences of opening up to his wife and children. I can understand that to be a tantalising idea for most people, and I loved Richard's answer about the importance of being open, honest and sensible. Communication, communication, communication! That was the main message in his answers to most of the questions - and in the play itself, in its own way! My question was about how to deal with the consequences of being open with your parents... To me, there is something intrinsically terrifying in letting your parents know that something traumatic happened to you and that they can't do anything about it now. I can feel their pain and impotence and it shatters my heart just to think about them suffering with that. You see, they already know about my mental health condition, but they don't know the reason for my PTSD. I needed to know what Richard thought, and asked for his advice. Wisely enough, he replied he doesn't do advice - he is after all not an expert - yet he remarked again on the same message of Communication! Communication! Communication!
I relaxed into my question. I had just watched a grown man explore his full life in front of a room full of avid listeners. I cried for several minutes after the show was over because of how much I could relate to his experience. At that moment, in that room, there were no boundaries between age, gender or nationalities, even though his experience came from the lacks of communication in masculinity and mine from the external dissatisfaction with my femininity. His experience came from a Britain in the process of reconstruction while mine came from a Mexico with a lack of understanding mental health conditions. His experience included a wife and grown children while mine has a newly-found husband after years of being single and parents who are only now feeling comfortable with how well I'm doing.
(Disclaimer: I went from bad to worse over the course of about 8 years and my family were rightfully worried about whether I'd be able to make it to where I am or not. I would not be here now without their support!)
Anyway, at that moment I felt grateful that there are people in the world like Richard, who can explore this openly and inform and inspire people through their work. I have an incomplete book which I started when I was 11, and a blog entry that I wrote 2 weeks ago, and a series of unfinished entries, chapters and notes in-between which I plan to bring out one day and post and publish and preferably finish first! Some will come out in the form of fiction or poems, but all will hopefully continue the thread of Communication! Communication! Communication! that people like Richard have bravely started...
... and some have already been put out there by me, of course, in the many pages of this blog and in my already published books, but the journey of healing and growth compels me to bring out even more from the depths of my soul.
I just hope I can inspire people just as much!
See you next week!
Sandra Cole ~ Actress, Model, Writer, Esoteric Explorer and Happy Bookworm
In the picture, me (in the pink top) with my lovely and supportive family on my dad's 60th birthday, the year before I moved to England. Bless them all <3
My Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sandra-Ten/e/B00NWBFY6E/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Sandra Cole ~ Actress, Model, Writer, Esoteric Explorer and Happy Bookworm
In the picture, me (in the pink top) with my lovely and supportive family on my dad's 60th birthday, the year before I moved to England. Bless them all <3
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sandra-Ten/e/B00NWBFY6E/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
