Tell us about your show MAD(E).
MAD(E) is an epic story of life, death, and everything in between. Focused on the tale of three boys existing within hostile environments, carrying their worlds in an urn, a bivvy bag, and soil from the Motherland, it depicts three stories from different cultures, each of the lads living lives dodging a system that engulfs and traumatises them. When they are confronted with Beira, a mythical female shapeshifter, the play delves into the intricacies of their mental trauma and ways of dealing with wounds that make post-trauma growth possible.
The play is funny. It looks at masculinity and how this manifests in society, so the audience has moments of fun and the space to laugh and recognise these moments. It is fast-moving, with a lot of physical and visual theatre, so audiences are kept on their toes, it is alive with action. Finally, the language is very lyrical and rhythmic, which offers a different way into the story of the play where audiences need to listen with a different energy.
What inspired you to write a show about masculinity and mental health?
In 2022 suicide rates for 15–19-year-olds were the highest they have been in 30 years. Suicide is the main cause of death in young people – male and female – under the age of 35 in the UK. In 2018, 1,866 young people under the age of 35 took their own lives. Over three quarters of them were boys or young men.
These statistics told me and Mandala Theatre Company that something needed to be done. I felt that there was a serious crisis – young people with special educational needs or mental health issues, or ethnically diverse backgrounds or low-income backgrounds are especially vulnerable. Yet their voices are never heard. This new play we would create would give them a voice.
The research and development of MAD(E) began in February 2022. We commissioned published writer Sean Burn, who has lived experience of mental distress (who wrote the play) and Rapper and Spoken Word artist Kema Daley, to work with me, as director, in creative workshops with boys and young men up and down the country. We used this research to feed the exploration and development of the new play – MAD(E).
As novelist and activist Elif Shafak so eloquently states, we need to “start by rehumanising those who have been dehumanised. And for that we need the art of storytelling”.
How did you come up with the ideas for the supernatural, mythical elements of the story?
Sean Burn, the writer and I, have worked together on a number of projects and we had both been fascinated by Caryl Churchill’s ‘The Skriker’ – so we knew we wanted a mythical energy in the play. Also I adapted Sean’s play ‘Blood Oil’ two years ago and we inserted a character – Gaia – into this piece, she had a similar energy connected to the Earth and the Mother Goddess. Finally, in 2017 I adapted and directed Sean’s play ‘Collector of Tears’ and the central character in this is a shapeshifter who has lived through many time periods in history and she is a similar character to Beira in MAD(E), who is also a 5000 year old shapeshifter, seer and ancestor.
The character enables the play to go beyond the here and now and draw on history, on energy outside the everyday.
What was your process for balancing humour, poetry and physical theatre?
Sean’s writing is beautifully poetic and rhythmic, which is one of the reasons I commissioned him to write the play.
He is able to write stories that are both epic and personal at the same time, which I love, and he is very open to input. Sean and I share the same desire to create dialogue about mental health and healing and he is very open about his own struggles with mental distress and uses humour as a healthy way of dealing with mental distress.
We both wanted the play to have lightness and humour in order to balance some of the darkness in the play. Physical theatre is always the way I direct plays. Embodying emotion and character communicates underlying feelings and keeps the play dynamic and exciting to watch.
What do you think makes these performance styles so useful for examining such serious topics?
As mentioned above, the stories we are revealing are deep and dark, but every story also contains light and humour. For us to present MAD(E) to an audience we needed to ensure it was focused on healing and ways to combat the darkness – which also needed to be in the style and structure of the play.
How much of this show is based on real experiences?
The show was developed from the feelings, ideas and the creative writing of many boys and young men that we worked with but was never based on any one person’s life. Sean also used his own lived experience to influence his writing but again the play is not autobiographical.
I would say the play is very authentic, in terms of emotions, concerns and situations, but has amalgamated many different experiences into creating the characters and the storyline.
This show has input from boys and young men nationally. How did you incorporate so many personal experiences in a single piece?
Working with boys and young men’s groups in Oxford, London, Luton, Coventry, Sunderland, and Southampton, I worked alongside Kema Daley, a young workshop leader, rapper and spoken word artist who specialises in working with young people with mental health concerns and/or what is seen as challenging behaviour. He is an artist who the young people connect to, because he shares their concerns.
Using the medium of spoken word opened the creative field for many of the young people. They understand it and it speaks to them as a way of expressing themselves. We involved them as the ‘experts,’ inputting ideas into the creation of the script through spoken word, drama, and discussion. The workshops involved an exploration of masculinity and the expectations society places on boys and young men throughout history and today, as well as exploring the possibilities of hope and resilience and ways of supporting oneself and finding the support that is needed.
Sean came to several of the workshops and ran elements of them too. This was essential so that as the writer, he directly experienced the voices of young people as well as reading what they had written and could get more of a feel of what they were sharing.
This alongside academic research on masculinity, through Oxford Brookes University’s Professor Joanne Begiato and NGO expertise from Joy Hibbins, CEO of the Suicide Crisis Centre, Gloucester, deepened our knowledge, and provided further expertise.
The play took key themes and ideas that came up in the workshops and these shaped the stories of the three lads in MAD(E) and their different experiences of trauma, how they respond to their situations and how coming together gives them support and brotherhood.
What do you hope people take away from your show?
We hope the show will open up a dialogue between people about their own mental health. Especially for young men, but for all of us to feel we can be more vulnerable with each other and that we are able to support one another. We hope audiences will come away from the show and the Q&A feeling moved, hopeful and more open to reaching out for support and help and being their for their friends and family.
Ultimately, we want people to feel they have been entertained, informed and challenged and to know they are not alone – that this is the human condition.
Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into theatre?
Passion and perseverance are everything.
If you have something to say and theatre is the way you want to say it, then keep going. At times it may be hard but ultimately you will find the company or group that is right for you.
The art of theatre is for everyone, the business of theatre is not. You decide how much of the business you can deal with, this will help you choose your path. Setting up your own company – you have more control, but also the effort and energy needed to get funding. As a jobbing actor, you must be ready to find the work that is meaningful for you and a company that you feel supported by.
There will always be some rejection but if you can not take it as personal to you, but more about circumstances and not really to do with you, it will be easier for you. Make sure you keep developing your own creativity, through taking classes, writing or filming pieces or simply watching plays and films – it all feeds in to developing you and your art.
MAD(E) is running at The Pleasance Theatre Trust from 14th to 18th March. Book your ticket here.
The show will then run at Theatre Deli in Sheffield from 21st to 25th March. Book your ticket here.
It will conclude its tour on 30th March at Arts Centre Washington in Sunderland. Book your ticket here.
You can keep up with other work by the Mandala Theatre Company by checking out their website and following them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
