A Scottish theatre company is to use its award-winning puppetry to explore the issues surrounding mental health.
Fisk, which means fish and also 'to fish' in Danish, is the new show from Scottish puppetry company Tortoise in a Nutshell.
The show for adults and young adults, in Danish and English due to a co-production with Teater Katapult of Denmark is to receive its UK premiere at the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling in January.
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The issues addressed in the show are partly drawn from the company members' own experiences of mental health issues, and follows the tale of Man, who, in a boat on a tumultuous sea, meets Fisk, a fish who comes to meet him from the depths of the ocean.
The script was devised in conjunction with the Danish playwright Anne Sophie Oxenvad, and the company - based in Edinburgh - said it "draws on the company's own experiences living with depression and anxiety to create a portrait of how it's possible to pull through, and how those around us become vital in balancing our brains."
Ross MacKay, co-artistic director of Tortoise in a Nutshell, said the show, around two years in the making, could be seen by young adults as well as adult audiences.
"We started, about two years ago, this one image at the start, of a man in a boat, just about to jump into the sea, when a giant fish jumps up the other way, to meet him," he said.
"The National Theatre of Scotland have us some time to work on it, and from there we realised it was a show which was focussing on mental health and a lot of imagery and metaphors related to that."
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Mr MacKay said that the story of the show does not offer answers or a neat resolution for the issues it raises and explores.
He added: "We are really interested in asking questions, and even leaving the audience to ask questions rather than any kind of right answer.
"We draw on our own personal experiences. I suffered quite badly in my 20s, I was living with my then girlfriend who is now my wife, and we went through it together - and when we were talking about the show, the experience of going through these things with other people is not often talked about."
He added: "It pushed us to be quite bold with the imagery.
"The centre of the show is the giant paper boat on a fabric sea - it really depicts someone who can feel isolated and alone and go through peaks and troughs."
Fisk first opened at Teater Katapult, Aarhus, Denmark, in October 2016.
After the Macrobert UK premiere it will be performed in Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth, and Glasgow.
Tortoise in a Nutshell have toured over 250 performances across 78 cities in 7 countries around the globe – they have taken shows to Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Mexico and toured extensively across the UK.
Previous shows include The Last Miner, Grit and Feral which won several awards.
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The relationship with Teater Katapult began when Artistic Director saw Feral in 2014 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of Made in Scotland.
Mr MacKay added: "For Tortoise in a Nutshell, art and theatre is about crossing borders and breaking down boundaries.
"Theatre allows you to put yourselves into someone else's world.
"It's important then that we can take theatre across cultures and communities. We can share different experiences and outlook on the world. "Collaboration allows us to draw on different experiences, different styles of making work and different political climates.
"International co-productions allow us to create richer and deeper theatre and find the universal experiences even in the smallest of stories and individual of experiences."
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