Ending mental health stigma with 'Manic Monologues'

Mental illness is such a scary, stigmatised, and emotionally fraught subject that society finds multiple ways to avoid addressing it head-on. Instead, they speak of mental health or use words like wellness, rather than talk in plain terms about issues as common as depression, loneliness, anxiety, panic, and the dark possibilities of suicide.

Shalini Bhalla-Lucas was not scared to lift the subject out of the shadows into the light of day by producing under the name Just Jhoom? Kenya, The Manic Monologues, a theatre performance staged last weekend at the 11th floor Western Heights stage in Nairobi's Westlands.