EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Jack Rooke

Tell us a bit about Happy Hour

Happy Hour is the follow-up to my last show Good Grief, and it's a sort of comedic-theatrical brotherly love letter that I've written to some of my male friends. It's autobiographical and explores lad culture through the lens of a working class gay kid who finds himself at uni without a clue! I found myself with predominantly straight male mates, some of them struggling with issues we all just naturally ended up talking about and I think it's about showing a very emotive, empowering male friendship play out on stage, something I don't think has been explored that well.

I guess the show is my statement on the last 2 / 3 years of mental health being this culturally zeitgeisty topic, and this is me saying as a long-term ambassador for suicide charity CALM, a documentary maker who made a BBC series about male mental health and also as a man myself whose struggled, that I think the current mental health conversation has it all wrong.

This fixation on talking about talking isn't working and I'm pissed off that sentiment overtakes all conversations on mental health. This hour is about confronting the culture I believe exploits mental health for it's own personal profile and me detailing some very honest experiences.

Why bring it to Edinburgh?

With Good Grief last time, Edinburgh gave me a career because no one knew who I was before. I can not thank Edinburgh enough. Good Grief had four Soho Theatre runs, a Soho produced UK tour, a Radio 4 adaptation and a BBC Three series - all from the success at Edinburgh. That might not happen again with Happy Hour, who knows, but I feel like I want to come back and give part two of that story. Happy Hour literally picks up where Good Grief in Edinburgh 2015 ended. It's definitely a sequel that I was adamant with Soho Theatre who commissioned me to write the show, that I wanted to bring to the festival especially with Underbelly who supported me immensely two years ago.

What sets it apart from other shows at the Fringe?

I think it isn't another show about the importance of talking and opening up and masculinity. This show is almost one step on from that - its about the realities of actually opening up, what happens when you lift that lid on the can of worms and it isn't properly supported, and exploring the failures of both our government and us as society, in supporting the most vulnerable young people who are being crippled by mental health issues. This show is how we can move the conversation along to something that actually provides solutions, which was the basis for my BBC Three series Happy Man, which is still on iPlayer and involved me meeting numerous men who'd struggled with mental health issues and found radical, effective, wonderful methods to deal with it, outside of talking and what the NHS are failing to appropriately provide.

Who would you recommend comes to see you?

Anyone interested or frustrated by the mental health trend in Britain, anyone whose struggled themselves, anyone from a working-class background who feels surrounded by middle class kids, and anyone who wants to see an honest, funny, emotive story of male friendship on stage that I feel is different to typical depictions of that.

Are there any other shows you're hoping to catch at the festival?

Theres Patrick Turpin and Jon Pointing who are the funniest, smartest young chaps I've ever met. Then theres also Kiri Pritchard Mclean and Rose Matafeo who are just really quick, brilliant comics who are so easy and enjoyable to watch on stage. Also I'm incredibly excited to see We Are Ian at Pleasance which seems like a really fun theatrical riot & then my all time favourite act ever, Diane Chorley is back with a new hour, and her last show was the most joyful, heart-lifting, brilliant spectacle I've ever seen!

Timings and ticket information for Jack Rooke: Happy Hour are available on the edfringe website.

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