Playhouse to welcome audiences back with new Colin Bateman play

‘Nutcase’ is a blackly comic but unstinting journey through mental illness. At the heart of the play is the relationship between a father and his teenage son, whose life is veering into chaos.

Colin Bateman is the author of thirty-five novels, including Divorcing Jack, Mystery Man and Papercuts. He also wrote the screenplay for ‘The Journey’ following the development of an unlikely friendship between Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, and ‘Driven’, a comic thriller about John DeLorean.

While Nutcase is a work of fiction, Colin’s experiences of mental health issues have informed the writing of the play.

“This is the most personal thing I’ve ever written - but it’s also universal, because mental health issues are everywhere and growing by the day,” he said. “But I didn’t want to write something that was po-faced or judgemental, I wanted to write about how families struggle - about very dark times which can also sometimes be very funny. That’s life.”

The actors, Sean Donegan and Brendan Quinn, and director, Kenny Glenaan, are looking forward to bringing ‘Nutcase’ to a live audience.

Brendan, who plays teenager Sean Millar, describes it as a ‘dream come true again’ after the Covid pandemic had a ‘catastrophic’ impact on the arts sector.

“Live, this show will be like nothing else. It is a complete new piece of writing, no one else has seen it before and it is theatre coming back with a bang.”

Sean, who plays the father Michael Miller, added: “The communal experience of coming into one room and having the same experience as other people has been missing during Covid. It is so important and if you don’t have those shared communal experiences, you are at a loss.” 

It may be a play about a very difficult subject matter, but the cast say that Bateman deals with it in his typical darkly comic style.

“The play is about schizophrenia and a father trying to deal with discovering that his son has this mental health problem and trying to live with it,” Sean explains. “We trace the evolution of this mental illness from when the character Sean is a teenager through to when he is in residential psychiatric care.

“The second act is about his experience in this mental health setting, with other patients and the specialists treating him. What is fantastic about doing that topic in this play with this writer is that it is hilarious.”

While the focus is on the relationship between the father and son, Sean and Brendan play over 20 other characters in numerous locations throughout the play.

Director Kenny Glenaan, said that live theatre is the perfect environment ‘for this type of story and the way it is being told’.

“I won’t give any spoilers away, but there is a wee bit of a theatrical coup in terms of what Colin has created in relation to the pandemic. It’s a lovely observation of people in this situation during Covid.

“For a play about schizophrenia, at its heart is a father son relationship so you have an objective experience of the situation and a subjective experience of it. It is a whirlpool of emotions, no one knows where it is going to land at any one time.”

He added: “The two actors are employed to furnish the play with the whole tapestry of characters. The actors are slightly schizophrenic in that they play 25 characters in 35 locations.”

Kenny said ‘Nutcase’ will have the audience ‘laughing their socks off but thinking at the same time’.

“With mental illness, it is always six degrees of separation between you and someone you know that has been touched by it. You already have something in common with it and Colin, like any great writer, is ten steps ahead. He is plodding off into the darkness and talking about it.

“It’s going to be a great night out and everyone is ready for that.”

‘Nutcase’ is at The Playhouse between August 24-29 and it will also be broadcast live on the website. Tickets are available at derryplayhouse.co.uk.