Cairo – While doctors are working to help the approximately 280 million people suffering from depression around the world, the interactive theater performance (Every Need is Sweet) highlights the effective role of art in raising mental health awareness and combating what the World Health Organization classifies as a mental disorder that leads to suicide.
The play is directed by Ahmed Al-Attar from Egypt and starring actress Nanda Mohammed from Syria and produced by Al-Mashreq Production Company with the support of the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi, the Arab Forum for Contemporary Arts and the Fund for Arab Arts in Paris.
The show follows the story of a seven-year-old girl who discovers for the first time that her mother suffers from depression and innocently tries to help her by writing a list of everything joyful that deserves life such as ice cream, cute cats, dancing songs, sunlight and much, much more.
The heroine grows up and becomes a college girl and her long list of fun things grows with her into hundreds, and she is keen to share her list with the mother, but it seems that this is not enough to bring the depression patient back to normal life, so she tries to commit suicide again.
Despite his deep humanitarian idea, the show relies on the performance of one actor without decoration or lighting, except for some simple accessories
The heroine meets the boy of her dreams at the university and they agree to marry, and after she has her home and her life, accumulations float to the surface with the neglect she suffered in her childhood due to the mother’s condition, who may have passed on her psychological state to the daughter in one way or another.
The heroine separates from her husband after her life becomes monotonous and stagnant and she stops completing the list of joy. Then comes the surprise of the mother’s death in the third attempt to commit suicide, and then the daughter discovers that she is in real need of psychological support and treatment.
Despite its deep humanitarian idea, the show relies on the performance of one actor without decoration or lighting, except for some simple accessories and music that plays a magical role in expressing the feelings of the heroine and the development of events with a mixture of ancient and modern songs.
Perhaps what most attracts the viewer to attend this show is the possibility of him becoming a participant in the events at any moment, as the heroine involves some of the audience in the performance of characters such as the father, the doctor and the lover.