The monologue D’ Mente, written by the actor Ari Telch, the playwright Alfonso Cárcamo, and produced by Verónica Telch, is back for a short season at the Milan Theater. The work exposes the various psychiatric conditions and mental illnesses so full of taboos in society. It all unfolds in a two-act soliloquy starring Ari, who brings multiple characters to life to make psychiatric illnesses and illnesses, increasingly common these days, visible.
In this staging, the actor reveals part of his intimacy to the public in order to clarify that a psycho-emotional illness is not cured just by praying or having faith, and that a depressed patient will not only resolve his internal conflict but also needs attention. medical.
“People are having a very bad time and unfortunately mental education is not something that accompanies us. Nobody told us how to behave in the face of an epidemic, ”says the actor in a conversation with El Economista.
He shares that from the beginning, the idea is that this work is not just an hour and forty minutes of entertainment, on the contrary, the implications and what it leaves behind are much more than that: “When a young man arrives who saw it three months ago and she returns to her mother and tells you, ‘look, this is my mother, she is a depressed person, who was locked up and in bed’, but after the play she decided to take her to the psychiatrist and it changed her life, that’s when you you realize the power of the messages of this staging”.
He assures that one of the main messages is that people realize that depression is a disease and that you have to go to the doctor. Unfortunately, this is also a problem, since Mexico has around 4,600 psychiatrists throughout its territory, but 12,000 would be required. As a minimum statistic, the World Health Organization indicates that 6,500 are needed in Mexico.
The disease fights against many things, says the actor; stigmas, taboos, ignorance and above all ignorance. “To begin with, when we hear the word mentally ill, then later we imagine the insane asylums from movies, comedies and scary characters. However, we are talking about what gets sick is the brain, just as people get sick with diabetes, we get sick of the brain”.
More current than ever
That is why for Ari, this project is one of the most important in his career, he has even privileged it over other projects with greater economic benefit, “this work also represents satisfaction, the power to pay for a subject as important as the mental health, which even increased with the pandemic.”
He clarifies that the work is still the same, “people laugh in the same places, cry in the same places, follow the same structure”, but “what has changed terribly are the statistics”, that is why the work is more current than ever.
According to the World Health Organization, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression have occurred five, four and three times more, respectively, according to global figures in this period of the pandemic. In Mexico, it is estimated that psychiatric disorders occupy the fifth place as disease burden. Depression affects around 10% of Mexicans, and is the third and fourth disability, according to the National Survey of Health and Nutrition (Ensanut).
What is clear is that 30% of Mexicans at some point in their lives have been depressed, around 33 million people. “Unfortunately, of these millions, only one in 10 will receive mental health services.”
The actor concludes that cinema, theater, television, have the power to change things and can become factors that inject hope, a route, and although it is fiction, “the messages reach us in different ways, that is why art is essential to talk about these issues, because it is a mirror of what happens to people”.
D´ Mind
Dates: March 28, April 4, 11 and 18 at 8:45 p.m.
Place: Milan Theater, Lucerna 64, Juárez, Mexico City
Ticket cost: $495 Ticketmaster
Social networks: https://www.facebook.com/DMenteTeatro
