Light it up

Suicide is one of the most difficult topics to talk about. Yet conversation is exactly what we need.

Lights on is an intimate evening of theatre about suicide. Not with numbers or policy language, but with personal stories from ordinary people who know it up close. As survivors, loved ones or caregivers. Theatre maker and interviewer Wendelien Wouters talks to them, accompanied by music by Maarten van Veen (De Reisgenoot).

A worthy, honest conclusion to a week of awareness.

Background information Lampje erop; Openhearted about Suicide arose from a simple belief: talking about suicide saves lives. Not talking does too, but in reverse. Theatre maker and interviewer Wendelien Wouters and Mirte Sonntag of Studio Zondag set up this programme because the need for real conversations about suicidality is great and supply is scarce. Not every conversation has to start in a consulting room. Sometimes it starts in a theatre room, with a story from someone you don't know, but who says what you have felt for a long time. Mirte Sonntag herself was silent about her own mental suffering and death wish for over 25 years. Until she discovered what talking about it gave her: space to live. That experience is at the heart of why this programme exists. Her conviction: as long as suicidality remains unmentionable, people remain trapped in their own minds. Starting the conversation is not a risk. Remaining silent is the risk. Lights on closes Suicide Prevention Week as the final piece of an awareness-raising week. An evening that does not instruct, but touches