Solar Bear theatre company’s Therapeutic Theatre strand was created five years ago for the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, and it’s now developed into a process of engagement for its participants which culminates in a show at the festival. Although there are many elements to Solar Bear’s work – aimed at people who can’t easily engage with theatre, it’s best known for its work with the deaf community – Therapeutic Theatre is specifically for those with mental health difficulties.

‘First the group comes together and has fun through drama games and exercises,’ says coordinator Emma Hagen, describing the process of creating the performance. ‘The second stage explores people’s own life experience in complete confidence, which can be celebratory or more difficult and challenging, and the third involves devising that material into a theatre production, which this year is Inside Outside In Our Stride.’ The theme this year relates both to people’s internal feelings and how much of them they reveal to the outside world, and the physical element of staying within the home or a place of sanctuary versus the sense of isolation this can cause.

Arches, Glasgow, Thu 25 & Fri 26 Oct