Mad(e) & Cutter

A stage play exploring growing up and notions of masculinity.

Between Valentine’s day and first day of winter, three lads and an ancient and mischievous shapeshifter collide repeatedly. One lad carries an urn, literally unable to let go of their best friend’s ashes; the second is homeless because he came out as bi; the third has no recourse to public funds. As they dodge a system that engulfs and traumatises, can the mythical and ancient beira help them still the glitch in their broken minds?

An epic story of life, death, and everything in between, mad(e) is a passionate, exhilarating and uniquely theatrical commentary on masculinity and young men’s mental health, co-created with boys and young men nationally.

Ultimately, it is about healing, informed by the playwright’s own lived-experiences.

Sean Burn is a writer, performer and outsider artist with a growing international reputation. He is actively involved in disability arts and was shortlisted for a dada fest award in 2009 for a body of work creatively tackling living with mental distress. He has had eight pamphlets of poetry and visual poetry published as well as two previous full-length collections of poetry, his Shearsman collection--is that a bruise or a tattoo?--being his third. His visual poetry pamphlet mo thunder was shortlisted for the michael marks award 2011. He has had three spoken word cds released, most recently speaksong (with musician gareth mitchell).

Sean has also had three collections of his prose published, most recently molotovs happy hour andhe is the author of eleven full-length plays as well as numerous shorter works and has twice received a Peggy Ramsay foundation award for his theatre. His play--next swan down the river might be black--toured nationally, was shortlisted for the BBC’s Alfred Bradley bursary award and was published by Aurora Metro who have also published his plays collector of tears and joey.

His thirty poetry films have received many screenings worldwide, as well as at Tate modern and the National film theatre studios, London. He regularly exhibits his visual poetry internationally. sean also composes soundscapes / soundmaps which he gives spoken word performances over.