Masculinity: Toxic or misunderstood?

The Writer

Tickets £5

Free to those aged 25 and under.

production information

This is men talk. I got some talk for you later. You know what kind of talk I mean. You go on and powder it up. – Fences by August Wilson

Take charge. Hide your feelings. Be strong. Man up.

What does it mean to be male today? What are the rules to becoming a real man? When the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 today is suicide who do masculine ideals endanger most?

This Almeida Questions panel puts masculinity under the spotlight to debate whether male characteristics and behaviours are inherently toxic – or just misunderstood.

Panellists
Matt Cain
Maddy Costa
Ella Hickson
Sule Rimi
Jamie Wilkes

Dates & Tickets

Mon 30 Apr
6pm

Free to those aged 25 and under. Log in and enter the promo code UNDER25 when booking.

Matt Cain

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Matt Cain was born in Bury and brought up in Bolton. He spent ten years making arts and entertainment programmes for ITV before stepping in front of the camera in 2010 to become Channel 4 News’ first ever culture editor. His first novel, Shot Through the Heart, was published in 2014 and his second, Nothing But Trouble, followed in 2015. As a journalist he's contributed articles to all the major UK newspapers and in 2017 was voted Diversity in Media's Journalist of the Year. In Spring this year he stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of Attitude, the UK's biggest-selling magazine for gay men. He lives in London.

Maddy Costa

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Maddy Costa writes about theatre, performance and live art, publishing her work with Exeunt, in blogs, as fanzines, and also on two platforms she co-runs with Mary Paterson and Diana Damian Martin, Something Other and The Department of Feminist Conversations, inter-related projects that think politically about performance and performatively about politics. The theatre-makers with whom she has worked – as critical friend, dramaturg, documenter or archivist – include Chris Goode & Company, Fuel, In Between Time, Harry Giles, Sheila Ghelani, Unfolding Theatre, Rhiannon Armstrong, The Place, and Selina Thompson. She also co-hosts a pop-up theatre club - like a book group, but for performance - across London.

Ella Hickson

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As writer, for the Almeida: The Writer; Oil.

Theatre includes: Wendy and Peter Pan (RSC); Merlin (The Royal and Derngate, Northampton/ Nuffield Theatre, Southampton); Boys (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton / Headlong Theatre / HighTide Festival Theatre); Decade (Headlong Theatre / St. Catherine's Dock); The Authorised Kate Bane (Traverse Theatre); Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios / Tantrums Productions); Hot Mess (Arcola Tent / Tantrums Productions); Eight (Trafalgar Studios / PS122, New York / Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh).

Film includes: Hold On Me.

Radio includes: Rightfully Mine; Riot Girls.

Ella was the Pearson Writer in residence at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in 2011. She is the recipient of the 2013 Catherine Johnson Award.

Sule Rimi

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Sule is a stage, screen and voice actor based in London and has previously appeared in the Almeida productions They Drink it in the Congo directed by Michael Longhurst and Mary Stuart by Robert Icke. He has recently completed an Antipodean tour of the sell-out National Theatre/West Yorkshire Playhouse/Fuel Theatre production of Inua Ellams' Barber Shop Chronicles, directed by Bijan Sheibani.

Jamie Wilkes

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Jamie is an actor, playwright, activist and volunteer workshop facilitator for the Great Men Project which aims to challenge stereotypes of masculinity and to engage men and boys in the movement towards gender equality https://www.great-men.org.

Additional information

Almeida Questions is an eclectic programme of pre-show discussions which consider some of the questions raised by the work on our stage. In each discussion, invited panellists dig into the key issues and ideas emerging from the show.