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 25-30 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, all of these people have completely different lives, dreams and human rights to the single medical model coerced upon them.
Qualia reveals all.