Local charity teams up with Chichester Festival Theatre to ‘reframe’ dementia

Local director and writer, Fiona Dunn, working with a composer, choreographer and film director, ran a series of creative imagination workshops at Sage House earlier this year.

These workshops explored the musicality of people living with dementia and their loved ones, using words, music, movement, poetry, storytelling and laughter. Each session encouraged participants to explore what friendship, love and laughter means to them in a fun and relaxed environment. These words were turned into lyrics, movements into choreography and experiences into stories.

The professional creatives have now created a 45-minute performance of sung narrative-dance in response to the workshops. Chichester Festival Theatre will host a one-off performance on Saturday 28th September at 11:30am in the Steven Pimlott building.

The Reframed Project will also be filmed for a celebratory screening at Sage House, so that all participants, customers and families can enjoy the piece.

Fiona Dunn was inspired to create this piece of theatre after being inspired by the “wonderful, funny, inventive and moving conversations” she had while volunteering at Sage House’s Day Breaks service.

Fiona adds; "We are honoured to be working with Sage House - their expertise and passion for their community is expressed every day in their bustling and vibrant building and we are excited to share our creative practices and give confidence to carers and families to work imaginatively. If we breathe, we can create”.

Sage House in Tangmere provides vital and life-changing support for families affected by dementia, including free, specialist advisors, known as Wayfinders, who help people understand how to deal with dementia, with or without a formal diagnosis.

You can reserve your free ticket to the performance by visiting thereframedproject.co.uk