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Every 40 seconds suicide claims a life around the world, so every 41 seconds there is someone left behind.
Someone like Mary Galouzis.
"I guess everything stems back from my brother's suicide many, many years ago and I wanted to write something from the perspective of someone left behind," she said of her raw and confronting show, which is part of this year's Adelaide Fringe festival.
"It's looking at suicide, loss and grief from many different perspectives."
The show, 41 Seconds, is loosely based on the story of Galouzis's brother, who took his life four days after her wedding.
"I don't believe you ever quite get over it — you learn to live with the pain," she said.
"With suicide, I've always described it as the tide that comes in and out and, just when you feel safe, it comes back in to drag you back into the water."
The Fringe play explores how the death of its central character, Nick, affects his family and friends, as 11 characters express their reactions to the loss.
"Each character, in a sense, symbolises my own grief journey," Galouzis said.
Cast members drawn from support group
After her brother's death, she established a community group Talk Out Loud to help address youth mental health and suicide prevention.
Some of the 41 Seconds cast members are from that group.
Tara Shapcott plays Nick's ex-girlfriend Chloe in the Fringe show.
The 17-year-old said she had struggled with anxiety and depression and that playing the role had been challenging, but in a very supportive environment.
"My character doesn't understand suicide and mental health, so trying to portray a character who's somewhat ignorant is somewhat difficult because I can relate to someone with mental health and suicide issues so well," she said.
She hopes to help break the widely held stigma of discussing mental health and suicide, something she said was still difficult for many young people.
"I feel younger people are always judged for talking about mental health because a lot might think they're attention-seeking, that they have nothing to be sad about because they're young," she said.
Monologues tell real-life stories
Interspersed through the play are four monologues, telling real-life stories about mental health and suicide.
Galouzis said she hoped the audiences would engage with, and be helped by, hearing actual life stories.
"I see it as a quite a powerful addition to the play — rather than being just separated into your normal acts and scenes and so on, these are real stories," she said.
"We've had many rehearsals where we've been in tears."
Vinnie Esposito has battled depression and lost a friend to suicide recently. He performs one of the monologues.
"Basically my monologue is on the love of my life, a girl, and obviously things don't work out and it's just expressing that — it's still hard now," he said.
The 34-year-old said he had considered but never attempted suicide and being involved with 41 Seconds was about healing and paying it forward.
"By me helping other people, I'm helping myself — that's how I see it myself — and I'm more than happy to share my story to help them. If I can save one life, that's a job done for me."
Galouzis said the show had a powerful finale.
"Each actor walks on with a pair of shoes that belonged to a loved one, and then we show a slideshow of faces lost by suicide," she said.
After the Fringe, she plans to take 41 Seconds into schools.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, carnivals-and-festivals, events, suicide, mental-health, health, community-and-society, adelaide-5000, sa
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