Can I help you? at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham

A play from the late founder of a theatre company that draws on themes around mental health will run at Omnibus Theatre in Clapham from March 3-21.

Theatre company Playing ON will present Can I Help You?, which brings to life their late co-founder Philip Osment’s final play.

Susan Aderin will appear as Fifi, alongside Gabriel Vick as Francis, in a poetic and uplifting examination of how race and gender intersect with issues of mental health.

An off-duty English policeman is about to throw himself off Beachy Head when he is met by a Ghanaian woman carrying a laundry bag and a cat box.

Over the course of one night, two very different people learn what it truly means to be touched by the magic of hope.

A nuanced and compassionate piece, it finds hope in the bleakest of circumstances.

Drawn from their community mental health programmes, the piece is partly inspired by characters created by service users and clinicians in a six-week theatre engagement programme with East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and Theatre Royal Stratford East, as well as several interviews with members of the Ghanaian community.

Playing ON said they try to marry professional theatre and socially engaged practise, using theatre as a method for the powerless and the powerful to explore common issues and find insight into the others perspective.

Director Jim Pope said: “The most precious thing Philip gave to me was the understanding that the real way to engage a group is to listen, respect, honour who they are and treat their offerings as precious gifts.

“This leads to trust and the permission to interpret, challenge, question, and makes stories.

Philip was a teacher, mentor, therapist and so many other things to me; he was a friend.

“His practise is the bedrock of our work, which I take forward into every creative space we enter.”

Pictured above: Can I Help You?  rehearsal with Gabriel Vick and Susan Aderin. Pic: Bridie O’Sullivan