'It is what it is': finding a path through the fog of men's mental health

Two frank solo shows, East Belfast Boy and Every Day I Wake Up Hopeful, depict male crises with heart, humour and hip-hop

Saggy and shuffling, his dressing gown flapping over a middle-aged spread, Malachy is in garrulous confessional mode. His sofa has become an analyst’s couch. This is to be his final reckoning, we realise. Depression has taken a firm hold.

Simon O’Gorman brings rueful charm to the role of this solitary man in Every Day I Wake Up Hopeful (★★★★☆). It is one of two solo works about male mental health, presented as companion pieces on an extensive cross-border tour of Ireland by Belfast’s Prime Cut Productions, who had a hit in 2016 with Stacey Gregg’s Scorch, in which a teenager grappled with gender identity.

Continue reading...

from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UxFHuG