Riverside Studios today announce the world première of Boys Cry written and performed by Christian Graham.
The production runs at Riverside Studios, opening 16 September, with previews from 14 September, and running until 26 September, following its run at Omnibus Theatre, 30 August to 9 September 2021.
“How do I begin?
I’ll try my best to be clear.
To make sense of things….”
When Mark is mugged on the way to college, his reality is shattered. This life-changing event forces him to confront some of his deepest issues and to begin to interrogate his connection to masculinity. For Mark, being a boy has always meant closing up and shying away from complex emotions. His typically masculine dad is looking for a quick solution, his mum there to be a shoulder to cry on when he is ready to release. As he begins to reassemble himself, he develops a sharper image of the person he wants to be.
Bringing us back to the first decade of the 21st Century – the early 2000s – Boys Cry explores self-image, maturity, life after trauma and definitions of manhood. It fights to overcome toxic aspects of masculinity and interrogate the norms we have come to accept about gender.
Christian Graham, writer and performer of Boys Cry, said today, “I wrote Boys Cry to talk about how vulnerability is a strength rather than a weakness but I hope that audiences also walk away with an awareness of how to question some of the false narratives about masculinity we have grown up with. It’s especially important for young men to be able to free themselves from these misconceptions.”
Boys Cry is at Omnibus Theatre 30 August – 9 September 2021 and Riverside Studios 14 September – 26 September 2021