Guest Blog: Mental Health Trust Schizophrenia Training: A character’s journal by Sipho Eric Ndlovu

Women & Theatre is based at The Uffculme Centre which is part of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust Foundation. As part of our rental agreement for our office we provide a variety of creative projects that respond to The Trust’s work, including working with patients, supporting training with staff or performances for conferences and celebration events. Workshop Facilitator, Writer and Performance Artist Sipho Eric Ndlovu has written the below blog about working with us recently on a project which explored the lived experience of schizophrenia.

Bringing Schizophrenia to the Stage for NHS Staff

We created a series of short performance pieces rooted in real testimony and research. it was a health services play weaving together fragments of inner voices, vulnerability, and moments of startling humanity.

It was a pleasure to once again partner with the Birmingham-based award-winning company Women & Theatre, to deliver a deeply effecting performance exploring the lived experience of schizophrenia for an audience of NHS staff. I was part of a team of 3 actors (with Shu-Wen Tung), an Associate Director (Vicky Pritchard) and an intern researcher (Maame Asanowa Yirrah), together tasked to create a nuanced show; intimate and expansive, embodying the fractured yet poetic rhythms of minds navigating psychosis and others obliging systemic duties.

This article is from the view of my role on the project and my developed character. A patient with experience of Schizophrenia, named Steven.

At times, Steven’s words came in waves of confusion; at others, in startling clarity that were devised to have a professional audience holding their breath. For myself, it wasn’t just a performance but a kind of shared witnessing of how art can translate what experience can hide. In the eyes of every NHS worker who saw the performance on an awesome autumn morning, this truth was met with understanding and impassioned contributions. A reminder that theatre, at its best, doesn’t just tell stories. It guides healing.

Women & Theatre, known for their socially conscious productions, designed the piece as part of an ongoing programme to open dialogue between healthcare staff and the communities they serve. The performance was followed by a compassionately facilitated discussion, where audience members reflected on the emotional weight of their work and the urgent need for empathy in mental health care.

A character – ‘Steven’s Poem’: written by Sipho Eric Ndlovu

“There is a chorus here. And a choir. And a band.
But there’s silence nowhere. Beautiful voices I can’t stand.
To not be listened to by the voices screaming at you.
How does any of this make sense?!”

Three songs listened to whilst writing this:

Daniel Caesar – Call On Me

Busta Rhymes – Everybody Rise

ObongJayar – I Wish It Was Me