About

About Qualia Theatre.

Qualia : (/ˈkwɑːliə) are defined as individual instances of subjective, conscious experience of a shared common reality.

Qualia is devised theatre by performance artists with diverse experience of the Australian public mental health system, passionate about revealing human rights in adult psychiatric wards through theatrical performance.

Directed and Produced by Heidi Everett, a multimedia artist and producer with decades of lived experience of the public mental health system and the arts.

On any given day, an Australian public psychiatric ward has, on average, around 25 adults living in it.

A typical general adult psychiatric unit (APU) is made up of a common area; one consulting psychiatrist; three meals a day; one activity a week; a primary antipsychotic medication; a stay quota of around six weeks.

Recovery is based on a person's capacity to accept treatment and display regulated insight to their illness.

There are no cultural or language support structures in place such as Auslan interpreters, elder healing methods, access to religious or spiritual resources, or health rights basics around physical exercise or mental stimulation. An APU with an outdoor courtyard area is usually frequented by smokers making fresh air inaccessible to people with sensory realities.

As well as the minimal structures, 25 of these people have completely different lives, dreams and human rights to the single medical model coerced upon them.

Qualia reveals all.

Woman in wheelchair talking to woman and man in beanie, seated around a small round table.

Woman with dark hair and red jumper with hands stretched over face, in front of blue blurry hospital corridor.

Smiling woman with nasal tube in white shirt in front of woman in green t-shirt with two thumbs up, man in stripy blue top, woman in black and grey t-shirt, woman with glasses. All smiling.

Man with dark hair wearing dark blue jumper. He is sitting on the pavement, on a white sheet, with red and yellow blanket and pillow.

'Winner Melbourne Fringe Awards 2019' inside two fern leaves.

Woman of Maori descent wearing a korowai, a garment woven with red and white feathers. She is standing inside a big white hall with hardwood floor.

Overhead photo of six people on stage with black floor. One woman on left in white top and red pants. Woman in middle operating a camera, man seated on right. One younger woman standing signing, two women in wheelchairs.

Smiling woman in white top with smiling man in black top, standing in front of glass wall with Banyule Library and Cultural Hub on it, sunny day.

Woman with short hair and pink bandana, standing on stage with black curtains. She is looking at a guitar leaning up against a wall.