LOVE Arts Festival, this week's celebration of mental health and the healing power of the arts in York, will turn the spotlight on theatre on Saturday and Sunday at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate.

Anonymous Bosh Theatre Company, from York, will open the weekend of shows with The Knot Of The Heart, David Eldridge's exploration of the creeping onset of self-destruction beneath a veneer of feigned respectability, on Saturday at 2pm, followed by a 7.30pm performance on Sunday.

Directed by Anna-Siobhan Lewis, Eldridge's play is marked by his trademark lyricism and acute observation as he depicts the consequences of the beautiful and privileged Lucy (played by Anna Rogers) losing her promising television abruptly when caught smoking a heroin joint in her dressing room.

Before long, her social drug habit spirals into addiction and helpless dependency until she is referred to crisis intervention centre. As Lucy struggles to adapt to her rehabilitation routine, her family struggles to cope with the catastrophic loss of the bright, talented girl they once loved.

Bird On Head's ten-minute show, Blu, asks how can you be found when you're feeling totally lost? How can you be loved when you don't love yourself? This snapshot look at one couple as they begin to let down their barriers can be seen at 5pm on Saturday and 4.30pm on Sunday.

Conquer Theatre Company's show, Are You Taking The Mick?, on Saturday at 6pm, draws on ideas of things not going the way they were planned. This devised piece uses text provided by Converge students in York in a combination of lived and imagined experiences, performed by the newly created company under the leadership and direction of Rachel Wall.

Converge, by the way, is a partnership between York St John University and mental health service providers in and around York that provides arts educational opportunities for those who use NHS and non-statutory mental health services and who are 18 years and over.

In Beardog's Do You Mind?, on Saturday at 7pm, Joni has met someone special online, but before she can go any further, she feels she has to tell him something important. How can she tell him she has a long-term mental illness, however, and is it really the best thing to discuss on a second date?

Everyone has had a moment when they have struggled to tell something important to someone they care about, and here Beardog use expressive gesture, storytelling, puppetry and an old-school overhead projector to consider how we discuss the most vulnerable parts of ourselves and how open we can be in a new relationship.

York company Hedgepig Theatre present Gemma Sharp, Anna Rose James and Victoria Delaney in Jean Genet's dark, claustrophobic The Maids on Saturday at 8.30pm and Sunday at 2pm. This darkly humorous play follows the winding paranoias and destructive power plays of two sisters as they plot the murder of their Mistress.

On Sunday, at 6pm to 7pm, Enso perform Headaches, a play comprised of people's personal testimonies, poems, monologues and songs collected and adapted for the stage by director Elena Michael to show show that mental health does not have to be tragic.

"Headaches challenges conflicting representations of mental illnesses and concerns real people with all their wonderful abstract emotions and complexities, and the confusing ways in which we represent them," says Elena. "Our message is simple: it is somebody's illness; it is not the most interesting thing about them."

For ticket details, visit loveartsyork.co.uk