The word “brave” gets bandied about a lot these days. But confronting and sharing a personal experience of psychosis is not only brave, but incredibly vital.

B.L.I.P.S. (Brief Limited Intermittent Psychotic Symptoms) takes the audience through the first-hand experience of Margot Mansfield’s struggles with psychosis. The sensitive subject matter is treated respectfully but B.L.I.P.S. doesn’t hold back on the hard facts.

Director Jess Love, themselves no stranger to the themes of the show, and Mansfield have collaborated on a show that is heart-breaking, alarming and even humorous at times. Weaving acrobatics, hoops, and circus performance to convey a complex subject that most would consider taboo.

A handstand is held on a hospital bed for an uncomfortably long amount of time, showing anguish and in the next moment colourful hoops are conveying the manic highs and lows through expert physicality.

Interspersed throughout the B.L.I.P.S. are old family videos, showing fun and carefree times in Mansfield’s life before they were shattered at the young age of nineteen. There are audio voiceovers of family members talking about what had happened, or phone conversations which allow you to eavesdrop on the experience of having a close family member endure something so scary.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, B.L.I.P.S. also provides a glimmer of hope and educates its audience.

Many of us, whether through lack of sleep, stress or organically have or will experience B.L.I.P.S. in their lifetime (either personally or through a loved one) and via funding from the SA Mental Health Commission Love and Mansfield have put together something with an important message and an enabler for those who have suffered the same to feel comfortable talking about it and not be stigmatised.

***** Five stars

B.L.I.P.S. is showing at Holden Street Theatres until Sunday, March 10. Get your tickets here.