First Fortnight at the Riverbank in Newbridge

Three events will take place at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge this week as part of the First Fortnight Mental Health Arts Festival.

The festival aims to challenge mental health prejudice through the creative arts.

This Wednesday, January 18, there will be a screening of Infinitely Polar Bear, starring Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana as a couple living in Boston in the late 1970s.

For her debut feature writer/director Maya Forbes draws on personal experience of being raised by a father with bipolar disorder; poignant and humorous, Infinitely Polar Bear has been described as a “refreshingly positive depiction of living with mental illness”.

On Thursday, at 7.30pm, there will be a talk on arts and health projects which are taking place within County Kildare.

The featured speakers will be dancer and choreographer Ailish Claffey on dance and health in County Kildare; visual artist Dominic Thorpe whose project The Creative Well commences a yearlong residency with Riverbank Arts Centre this month; and musical director Sharon Murphy of the The Past Times Community Choir which supports families living with dementia and their loved ones.

On Friday next, January 20, NB Theatre presents Creaking at 8pm.

Combining humour and pathos, Creaking examines the everyday challenges and pressures on the mental health of older people in Irish society through the eyes of 79 year-old indomitable Rita. Presented as a staged reading, Creaking is a unique movement documentary for theatre that combines original text, with an improvised vocal score.There will be a post-show discussion with the director, writer and members of the cast.

Tickets for these events can be booked at www.riverbank.ie.