Hearing Voices

Hearing Voices is a project by Marionet, in partnership with MOV (Hearing Voices Movement – Portugal), CES (University of Coimbra Center for Social Studies (CES) and Radio Aurora of Hospital Júlio de Matos, that intends to deal artistically with the hearing voices phenomena, depicting its significance, sensory perception, changes over time, moments of crisis but also of alternatives, and its place in creating a narrative of the self. Most recent research indicates that 4% of western people hears voices. The aim is exploring the ways through which voices can act as important social, cultural and political forces. This project is framed by the activity on the intersection of Theatre and Science, and the exploring of ways to articulate these two fields in the transmission of knowledge. What is proposed, thus, is the creation and public presentation of a theatre show that can foster reflection on the phenomena, together with several other initiatives aimed at a wider promotion of the theme. They are applying research-based theatre methodology, interviewing voice hearers and their caretakers, wherefrom they build the show’s dramaturgy. Aside from that, a sound installation was created to simulate the hearing voices experience, roundtables were held on the theme, podcasts were recorded and promoted together with Radio Aurora, and a set of articles published by the newspaper Público. The whole process was registered on video, with the aim of producing a documentary afterwards. An inquiry is also to be made to the audience of the spectacle so as to evaluate the project’s impact and the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary initiative of this nature. Concerning social intervention, this project means to foster understanding of the hearing voices phenomena as well as the diversity of ways in which it is understood and experienced, defying stereotypes, fighting stigma and discrimination, and promoting positive responses to related experiences, bolstering consciousness of the variegated ways to deal with confusing or difficult voices, creating safe spaces for sharing and involving the media in presenting realistic depictions of the hearing voices phenomena and related experiences.