On Friday November 10 Eccles Library held a pop-up theatre experience The Barbara Project, with the aim of helping families come to terms with dementia.
Mark Croasdale, Tom Guest and Jenny Gaskell offer an immersive production which explores dementia through the experiences of those living with, or affected by it, with the aim of encouraging people to “speak well about dementia.”
Barbara commented: “It’s been quite impossible to stop people from coming.
“We go out into the public, this is very dependent on who is around at the time. We’ve performed candlelit suppers in Chorlton at the Edge and at the Contact Theatre. In Chorlton, people were getting off the bus and we collared them.
“The whole point of these things is to encourage conversation.”
Barbara continued: “Sadly, I think people fear dementia-when it happens to yourself or to a loved one, you often don’t feel you have resources available to you because you don’t know where to look.
“Sometimes people feel ashamed and they don’t look, so they try to do things themselves. I think for us the most important thing is that you take time to care for others and yourself in a kind way.”
Event organiser, Tom, added: “I think the conversation around dementia evolves all the time and the conversation has grown to include carers. It is sometimes difficult for those carers to find the support.
“The possibilities with performances like this are endless really. All I can say for certain from the feedback from our audiences, 97 per cent of our audiences have had some kind of interaction with dementia, is that they appreciate the topic being spoken about in a joyful way.
“The project can give people the skills to start having those conversations and have less fear. Dispelling the fear, which is actually very manageable now, can mean people can live very well with dementia.”
Joy is a dementia associate connected to the University of Salford, she is an advocate for living well with dementia and also works for Talking About My Generation an online news platform for the over 60s in Greater Manchester.
Joy shared that she thinks there’s still a stigma around dementia. “Performances like this give people the opportunity to have conversations to air their fears and unpack what dementia means for them. As the saying goes: When you’ve met one person with dementia, you’ve met one person.
“The lived experience is different for everyone.”
Maraki Pocsai, Community Engagement Officer for Salford Institute for Dementia added: “We’re so lucky to get a pot of funding to enable the Barbara Project to pop up here today. We will go away from here and try to access more funding. This type of non-threatening performance is key for those involved. It’s all about awareness.”
Loved being part of the #BarbaraProject experience at Eccles Library @SalfordLibrary
A big thankyou to @markcroasdale @tommyguest@JenniferGaskell for the kind conversation and making us feel so welcome! #salforduni@SalfordNow pic.twitter.com/YWOXPcmXlw— Jessica Edgington (@jessedgin) November 19, 2023
Listen to a snippet of nostalgia by the talented Barbara project performers:
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