Tour Announced for Art With Heart’s Declaration

After winning the ADHD Foundation Partnership Award in 2017, Art with Heart return with a brand new tour of Declaration, a comic and candid look at Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Developed in consultation with medical professionals and mental health support groups, Declaration challenges the stereotypes of mental health and gender in the 21st century.

Instinctive, curious, bold and bouncy, Sarah is a mighty proud square peg – which wouldn’t be such a problem if the hole wasn’t so damn round. Her childhood doctor thought it was sugar. Her current doctor thinks its ADHD. Sarah still feels different, so what will a label do? Declaration is a vibrant and daring adventure of school day survival tactics, super-hero alter-egos and the stumbling blocks to self-acceptance.

Filled with great tunes, dancing and humour, Declaration is an upbeat autobiographical piece about the challenges Sarah Emmott faced as she sought diagnosis in her 30s. ADHD Action reports that about 1.5 million adults in the UK have the condition but only 120,000 have been formally diagnosed. A complex, frustrating and isolating process, Sarah discovered that you often need to be living in the extremities of the condition to receive support.

With boys nearly 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls, many girls go undiagnosed. Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) reported ‘the lack of appropriate identification and treatment of ADHD in women is a significant public health concern’. Declaration addresses social attitudes and gendered stereotypes, placing ADHD in women on the public agenda.

Director Rachel Moorhouse comments, “They say that variety is the spice of life, until they can’t decipher what flavour you are. Then you’re a problem to be solved. Declaration is a celebration of difference, and asks how much society might grow if it made space for diversity and difference. Declaration challenges those who underestimate us square pegs and shares the joy of finding your tribe.”