Bedlam Festival

28/11/2024

Thank you to the brilliant who is leading Heart Project for our Friday showcase! Read more about the team below ⭐️

Reposted •

Introducing the Pride Heart Project 2024 Creative Team

This year, our project met at for over 8 weeks. It embraced both playful and reflective practices, giving participants the chance to explore wellness techniques that truly resonated with them.

I’m so lucky to be working with this amazing team of collaborators:
🧠 Shanda Fernandes – Assertive communication and mindset coach.
🧵 Abeda Begum – Embroidery Artist.
🎨 Gayatri Pasricha – Graphic Design & Animation.
🎶 Iain Armstrong – Sound Designer.
🎭 Charlee M Piper – Interactive Artist.
And me, Ash Mukherjee – Creative Director leading somatic movement, creative writing, and drawing.

Together, we’ve created something truly special. The final event will showcase sculptures inspired by heart maps, embroidery, monologues, soundscapes, a new lgbt house anthem and animation film – all celebrating the resilience and bravery of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers. This exhibition invites you to engage with their stories, challenge perceptions, and connect on a deeper, more empathetic level.

📅 Catch it at BEDLAM FESTIVAL 2024
⏰ Friday, 29 November, 7:30 PM
📍 The Door, Rep Birmingham

Produced by , , & Sabra Khan at featuring the wonderful participants of Journey LGBTQIA+ Asylum Seekers Group Birmingham

We’ve also been so fortunate to have the incredible support of our key workers, Michelle,Alexandra Taylor, and Sheila Rushworth, who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make this project possible.

27/11/2024

What do we have lined up for our Friday Showcase Rep ?

🔸 LGBTQTeeHee! Comedians Alexus Savage, Sam Finch, Hol Thomas-Wrightson, Jak Matthews & Ben Allen
🔸 Cabaret & burlesque show Crying Shame with Sweet Beef Theatre,
🔸 A sharing from the Pride Heart Project with Journey LGBT+ Asylum Group, Ash Mukherjee & Sampad Arts
🔸 Stereohype Social from The Red Earth Collective with music & spoken word
🔸 Just Enough Madness, a compelling solo dance piece from Payal Ramchandani

🔗 Programme: https://issuu.com/bedlamshowase/docs/bedlam_2024
🔗 Tickets: https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bedlam-showcase/

🗓️ Thu 28th & Fri 29th Nov, 7.30pm
🎟️ £6 + booking fee

27/11/2024

Tomorrow ! Here’s a reminder of the lineup for our showcase on Thursday 27th November:

🔸 Stereohype Social from Red Earth Collective with music & spoken word
🔸 Katie H***e with impactful new play A Positive Risk
🔸 LGBTQTeeHee! Comedians Caz Sainsbury & Fynn O’Connor
🔸 Company Chameleon with the incredible Witness This

🔗 Programme: https://issuu.com/bedlamshowase/docs/bedlam_2024
🔗 Tickets: https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bedlam-showcase/

🗓️ Thu 28th & Fri 29th Nov, 7.30pm
🎟️ £6 + booking fee

25/11/2024

We love these images from the LGBTQTeeHee! with Birmingham Rep 🏳️‍🌈 Catch these comedians at the Showcase this Thursday & Friday.

LGBTQTeeHee! is a project about connection.
It’s a project about laughter. It’s a project that will be performing TWO NEW sets of stand up comedy as part of .

🗓️ Thu 28 & Fri 29 Nov at both BEDLAM showcases.
🎟️Tickets only £6! Book at birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bedlam-showcase/
📸 Kris Askey

25/11/2024

Join us for 2 brilliant showcases at Birmingham Rep, exploring the vital role the arts play in our wellbeing & mental health.

With a line up of dance, theatre, cabaret & burlesque, music, spoken word and stand up comedy, our 2024 festival is not one to miss 🎟️

🔗 Programme at https://issuu.com/bedlamshowase/docs/bedlam_2024

🔗 Tickets at https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bedlam-showcase

Funded by Inclusive Communities Fund.

13/11/2024

✨ Step inside Club Fragilé for BEDLAM 2024 ✨

“Bold, daring, inventive, funny, sad, thought provoking... A banger from start to finish. ” - Mark Gorman

🔸 CRYING SHAME from is a cabaret-show-cum-wellness-journey. In a dusty dreamscape you’ll encounter washed-up cabaret acts, filthy lip-syncs and a joyous celebration of q***r culture, as these camp clowns try – and possibly fail – to connect with you. You might be lonely, but you’re definitely not alone. 🔸

🗓️ Performing at our BEDLAM showcase on Fri 29th Nov. Tickets only £6! Link in bio to book today .

Presented by , , , .

Made possible by the Inclusive Communities fund, with heartofenglandcf, , ,

12/11/2024

🎭 For BEDLAM 2024 is sharing an extract of her brilliant new play ‘A Positive Risk.’

🗓️ Performing at our Thursday Showcase .

🔸 Elinor, 25, leads an average life, with a job, a cat and her own flat despite the demons she hides from the world. Funny and poignant, this play follows her journey through her first psych ward admission, highlighting the challenges of an outdated mental health system 🔸

🎟️ Thursday 28th November for BEDLAM 2024. Tickets only £6 for the evening - book via our website 🔗

Presented by , , , .

Made possible by the Inclusive Communities fund, with , , ,

10/11/2024

Have you seen these around Birmingham? Grab yourself a copy & read more about our 2024 showcases - Thu 28th to Fri 29th November at the Birmingham Rep!

You can expect 2 varied evenings of live performance, comedy, dance, music, burlesque & more. Celebrating the arts, mental health & wellbeing 💫

🎟️ Only £6 for each evening, tickets at birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bedlam-showcase/

09/11/2024

⭐️ “Ramchandani’s hold on the subject is reflected in the ease with which she translates this extremely complex and layered psychological state into dance.”

Experience an extract of Just Enough Madness from .kuchipudi at our Friday BEDLAM showcase!

This compelling solo dance piece challenges societal boundaries of ‘normal’, unravelling the complexities of motherhood, loss, and identity.

Performing on Fri 29th November FOR BEDLAM. Tickets only £6! Link in bio to book today .

Presented by , , , .

Made possible by the Inclusive Communities fund, with heartofenglandcf, , ,

30/10/2024

✨ Will you be in the audience for BEDLAM 2024? We’ll be welcoming the incredible Company Chameleon for our Thursday showcase, with an extract of WITNESS THIS.

Powerful and deeply personal, it tells the story of choreographer Kevin Edward Turner, following his journey with mental health and the impact it had on him and his loved ones.

Touching, sad, funny and absurd, this is a must-see performance.

🗓️ BEDLAM Showcases, Thu 28th & Fri 29th Nov, 7.30pm

🎟️ Tickets only £6 + booking fee:
birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/bedlam-showcase/

Presented by Sampad Arts, Birmingham Rep
Mac Birmingham Midlands Arts Centre - MAC
The Red Earth Collective, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Made possible by the Inclusive Communities fund, with Heart of England Community Foundation, West Midlands Combined Authority
United by 2022 , UK government

📷 Joel Chester & Bill Maximilian

22/10/2024

We can't wait for you to come to our showcase events next month but in the meantime the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival is on now and there are some online events you can check out. Here's one with the artist Caroline Horton who has brought her work to earlier BEDLAM Festivals. She will be discussing an ambitious new good practice guide by the Mental Health Foundation. The session is free and on this Thursday 24th October.

Join us for a discussion about Performing Anxiety, an ambitious new good practice resource for people who want to make creative work about mental health – produced by the Mental Health Foundation and the team behind the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.

21/10/2024

📣 It’s time to announce our final artists, and you’re in for a treat!

As part of our showcases on 28th & 29th November we’ll be welcoming:

➡ CRYING SHAME by - Fri 29th Nov only

Step inside Club Fragilé for a cabaret-show-cum-wellness-journey all about loneliness. In a dusty dreamscape you’ll encounter washed-up cabaret acts, filthy lip-syncs and a joyous celebration of q***r culture, as these camp clowns try – and possibly fail – to connect with you (I know, how embarrassing). You might be lonely, but you’re definitely not alone.

➡ Music & Spoken Word performances from StereoHype Social with - Thu 28th & Fri 29th Nov

StereoHype Social is a project bringing together new and emerging artists from Global Majority communities with lived experiences of mental health issues. This creative sharing follows a series of arts & mental health workshops throughout 2024.

🎟️ Tickets only £6 + booking fee. Available now via . Both performances will have live captioning.

🔗 Read more about our 2024 line up via bedlamfestival.co.uk.

Presented by BEDLAM Arts and Mental Health Partnership with

Made possible by the Inclusive Communities fund, with heartofenglandcf, , , .

10/10/2024

10/10/2024

We’re delighted to be presenting an extract from this powerful performance by Company Chameleon later this year for our November showcase 🎟️