A poster for the show, there is an image of a kitchen as if looking through a keyhole

PPIE Award Winner: Hidden LIVE: Adam’s Story

by Sam Hurley | Apr 18, 2023 | PPIE Award Winners, PPIE Celebration | 0 comments

In this blog series we will be featuring our award winners and highly commended recipients from the Faculty’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to PPIE’ awards. Showcasing the inspirational and outstanding commitment to PPIE that has made a positive difference to our community and highlighting the amazing events, activities, people and groups from across the Faculty.

Our next blog in this series will feature Hidden Live: Adam’s Story. Co-produced by a diverse team of young people, the immersive live performance focused on a young person struggling with their mental health. The team won the Highly Commended Group category for the 2022 awards.

Taking place in the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) during Mental Health Awareness Week (11.05.2022), the performance of ‘Hidden Live: Adams Story’ aimed to raise awareness of mental health issues affecting young people (YP). It also provided a space for YP, parents, health care practitioners and third sector organisations to initiate conversation and develop understanding surrounding these issues.

With increased diagnosis of mental health disorders in YP in recent years, now is more important than ever to provide help and support to YP affected by these issues.

The first half of show utilised multi-media in an immersive and interactive format to place the viewer in the shoes of Adam, a YP struggling with their mental health. Later, audience members were invited to discuss aspects of Adam’s struggle and how things could be improved for him.

The show was co-produced by a diverse group of ten YP from across Greater Manchester, who have lived experience of the themes discussed in the show. Other co-producers included creative organisation Made by Mortals and NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research). Colleagues Aneela McAvoy and Joanna Ferguson of NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM) worked hard to recruit, develop trust and support the YP who joined the project.

With a diverse demographic of over 200 people across Greater Manchester signing up for the performance, the show proved to be a huge success. At the end of the show, audience members were invited to provide feedback they had about the performance, with the response being overwhelmingly positive. Anonymous audience responses can be viewed here.

The shows format also allowed audience members to give their own insight into the show and offer novel and multifaceted ideas on how to promote mental wellbeing of YP from a diverse range of backgrounds.

The YP involved in the show were keen to continue their collaboration and as a result twenty more YP were recruited into a research advisory group for the project. Furthermore, the project aims to develop resources from the show that can be utilised as part of mental health education in schools.

This collaborative project is a great example of how arts can be valuable in raising awareness and directing conversation on important health issues.

Following the success of the show, additional tours took place in Greater Manchester in autumn 2022 and spring 2023.

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