A playwright from Buckinghamshire is putting on a ‘dark but funny’ play about men’s mental health.

Writer and actor David Keogh, 48, from Chesham, announced his show Past Tents will premier at the Elgiva Theatre on June 30 before going on the UK tour. 

The dad-of-two teenage sons spoke about the play, which aims to remove stigma around mental health through comedy.

The play was due to go on tour just before the Covid pandemic hit and "wiped the play out," David said.

After the friend of Seth Jones (co-starring) tragically died of suicide last winter, David and him decided to rewrite the play about “two men stuck on a campsite with mental health issues,” he explained.

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David said: “It’s hard, because I got a couple of other friends who were going through the same stuff, and I’ve gone through some difficult stuff over the years.

“From experience of dealing with it I know when I’m spiralling so I know it will be okay.

“The problem is when someone else is down, you can’t go to them and say ‘think of something positive’.

Instead of “preaching”, the play aims to give people something to focus on while tackling the myth of trying to survive on our own through difficulties, he said.

“We don’t want to preach mental health issues, but the play gets people talking, and not just men. Men’s mental health is certainly a problem.

“It’s a ‘mandemic’,” David said.

The story follows the chance encounter of two very different men Justin and Alan, who are forced to spend time together at a campsite.

Both men are at the very end of their tether and things start to unravel with dark and funny twists that will bring laugh and “an odd tear,” David said.

Putting on a show about the personal topic “has been challenging” because of the “huge weight of responsibility to get it right,” he admitted.

That is why they asked the charity Man Up to get involved and look through the script to make sure they “hit the target right”, especially as the topics touch on mental health and suicide.

David continued: “It sounds depressing but it’s not that. It’s funny, then it hurts before its’ funny again. If you take someone down a dark place, then you make them laugh at the end.

“When things are dark and bad, we tend to take the mic out of each other, and that’s quite strong in the play. It’s a very British thing.”

He said putting on a show in his adoptive hometown as an outsider was “nerve wrecking”.

“If it’s not funny and no one laughs I need to draw a fake moustache,” David laughed.

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