Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn want to talk to you about mental health, because not talking about it is getting us all nowhere.
From that single premise, ‘Fake It ‘Til You Make It’ begins its wacky journey into what it is like to be a ‘real man’ in today’s world while suffering from ‘the black dog’ of depression. And the two performers know firsthand just how debilitating and socially isolating it can be.
For UK performance artist Bryony Kimmings it was a surprise revelation. Six months into a relationship with her ad-land boyfriend (Tim Grayburn), she discovered he suffered from severe depression. It was a secret so dark that Tim had hidden it from everyone – including Bryony – and it only surfaced when she discovered antidepressants in his backpack.
Rather than flee, she decided to face the issue head-on and Bryony, being Bryony, decided to make a comedy about the subject, and in doing so, shine a light on what can only be described as the great malaise of Western society – clinical depression among men.
The show opens with the couple arriving onstage with baskets on their heads, maracas in hand, dancing to lo-fi muzak – as if this were normal behaviour. What follows over the next 60-minutes is a heady mix of performance and physical theatre that moves effortlessly between narrative drama and strange musical interludes through to heart-wrenching moments that capture the stark realities of mental illness.Led by Kimmings, this real-life couple invite us into their private world where we get to share in their off-beat humour, their hopes and desires, their joys and deepest fears. We listen in on their secret recordings, their text messages, their private conversations that threaten our comfort. We hear how men are told to 'suck it up', 'get over it' and 'be a man', and the awful damage this social conditioning does.
While 'Fake It ’Til You Make It' is passionate, tender, and genuinely heartfelt, it is often dark and uncomfortable to watch. Throughout most of the show, Grayburn's face remains obscured by a variety of headwear including a goat's head, fluffy clouds, a paper bag, gigantic binoculars and a tangle of rope that so easily could become a noose. And all the while, Kimmings, the performer, uses the floor space with consummate skill, countering the introverted personality of her partner.
‘Fake It ‘Til You Make It’ is as much about love as it is about depression and the stigma that goes with it, and despite the difficult material, it is wickedly funny, brutally honest and powerfully heartbreaking. It stomps on taboos and raises some uncomfortable truths about men’s health and the fact that suicide remains one of the biggest killers of males under 40.This show is raw, elegant, crude and savage in its honesty. And while it will make you laugh – be prepared to cry. Not because it is so bitterly sad, but because it had to be made.
This is theatre at its finest. Intimate, revelatory and entertaining. Put it at the top of your ‘must see’ list.
