On the occasion of the October 10 – World Mental Health Day, a forum theater – Stories from the Soul was held in Belgrade, Serbia. This interactive theatre performance is based on the experiences of users of psychiatric services. Forum Theater is a specific type of open theatre, which aims to influence current sensitive topics. Both actors and audience are active in it, as they try to find acceptable solutions to the problems they face together.
The creative process of the forum theatre was conducted by psychologist and artist Vera Erac, and the participants / actors were Bosiljka, Dragan, Milutin, Ognjen and Slobodan, representatives of the associations Duša and Videa. Through this interactive theatre play, the actors presented how society treats people with mental disorders through five bad stories about their everyday life.
After presenting these stories, psychologist Vera Erac introduced the audience to the problem in order to find alternative solutions to the presented situations. In this way, the audience could enter in the daily life of the users of psychiatric services and try to find solutions to the situations of discrimination and stigmatization that they are facing.
This forum theatre was organised within the campaign IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE, which is jointly conducted by Caritas Serbia and the users of psychiatric services, member of the Network for Mental Health NaUm. The idea is that this campaign sends a message that it is important to cultivate mental health and break prejudices.
Mental disorders do not discriminate and they can affect anyone, anytime, regardless of age, sex, intelligence, education, income. Nobody is immune! It can happen to anyone!
