On paper Kim Noble sounds scary. His shows, which are part comedy, part performance art, have a reputation for challenging and even annoying audiences, as well as being ground-breaking. While his work is sometimes classed as comedy – his double act with his regular stage partner Stuart Silver won the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe’s Perrier Award for best newcomer – he prefers to describe himself as an artist.

Noble is among the top artists taking part in this year’s BonkersFest!, a day of music, comedy, poetry and art organised by people with first-hand experience of mental illness. Also on the bill are Jo Brand and the poet John Hegley, both of whom were psychiatric nurses. Noble brings a former patient’s insights to his work for BonkersFest! He suffered a breakdown in his late twenties, an experience his recent work draws on heavily. He has also been artist-in-residence on the psychiatric wards of Homerton Hospital, in the East End of London. For the past eight weeks he has been working with patients at the Maudsley, South London, on a video project for BonkersFest!

Noble, 32, turns out to be disarmingly friendly, frank and easy to talk to. He kicks off by apologising for being rubbish at interviews (not true) and chain-smokes throughout. He’s a big bloke with Doc Martens, bright blue eyes and mobile features. But he is clearly one of those people whose skin isn’t quite thick enough for life. He chooses his words carefully and often interrupts a point to check that he’s making sense.

His breakdown led to a diagnosis of chronic manic depression, or bipolar disorder (see panel below), four years ago. It followed a particularly difficult period: a relationship had recently ended, and he had work and housing problems. He says: “To some people it might not be a lot, but to me it seemed everything was collapsing.”

He had to visit hospital for treatment every day for several months and has come off medication only recently: “Loads of pills, antipsychotics, to stop me doing silly things, happy pills and a few others mixed in.”

In the period leading up to his breakdown Noble’s behaviour became increasingly manic: he wasn’t sleeping and started obsessively recording everything he did on video. He had always worked with video but looking back he can see there was a change. He remembers, “I had this horrendous, manic urge to go into places, disrupt them and then video it. Then for some bizarre reason I started being horrendous to my family and friends by following them with a camera too. I just lost any sense of reality.” His family became increasingly concerned and one day his brother took him to the emergency psychiatric clinic. He moved back in with his family in Ashford, Surrey, so that he could be treated in the local mental health unit. “I didn’t know where to get help, so I was happy to be stuffed with drugs and analysed because the alternative was to jump off a bridge. Everything was happening around me, without me being in control. When you’re in that situation you don’t think you’re ever going to get out of it.”

Attitudes to mental illness didn’t help, Noble says: “The worst thing was admitting to my friends that I’d had a breakdown. Their reaction was mixed. Patients I’ve chatted to in the Maudsley are aware that people think you’re going to go out and kill somebody.” He has worked with patients there to produce individual films, and some will feature at BonkersFest!

But can such projects really help sufferers? Noble hopes so: “The people I’ve worked with are genuinely interested in an opportunity to express themselves. There is an immediacy about working with video cameras that allows something important to come through.”

He is less convinced that his work has helped him. Working in hospitals stirs up difficult memories. His most recent show with Silver, an old art-school friend, came out of his breakdown and includes some of the manic video recording from the period. Soho Theatre has asked them back to repeat the show, which was first performed two years ago, this summer.

Noble lives with the possibility that his manic depression may recur. “It’s always going to stay with you to some extent,” he says. “But these days I’m happy with the fact that I’m miserable.”

For Bonkersfest! details, visit bonkersfest.com Noble & Silver are at the Soho Theatre, London W1, June 21-23 and July 3-7; sohotheatre.com

Disorder of the mind What is it? Manic depression, which is also known as bipolar disorder, is a mental illness that involves extreme and unpredictable mood swings, from manic euphoria to deep depression.

Who does it affect? Between 1 and 2 per cent of the population are affected. Onset of the illness is usually between the ages of 15 and 24.

Treatment Lithium, a mood-stabilising drug, is the most common form of treatment, but antipsychotic and antidepressant medications are also used.

Contact Mind, the mental health charity, 0845 7660163, e-mail contact@mind. org.uk, or visit www.mind.org.uk

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