Cracking
Three days into motherhood, Rachel didn't recognise herself. There was nothing Sam wouldn't do to keep his family together. Practical and hands on, he stuck with it, held his tongue. and eventually Rachel got better. So why are they now sitting on a therapist's couch tumbling back into the past and Sam in real danger of losing everything?
Reviews
★★★★★
London Pub Theatres Magazine
★★★★
The Spy In The Stalls
★★★★
London Theatre 1
"Deceptively simple, meticulously researched and beautifully crafted, Cracking brings its audience face to face with the shared mental health challenges of new parenthood."
Daniel Buckroyd, Artistic Director, Exeter Northcott Theatre
Podcast
Cracking is an audio play adapted from Alright Mate's theatre show of the same name which toured in 2019 and 2020. Inspired by interviews with couples who had recovered from postnatal depression, Cracking took honest new writing with testimony and vibrant physicality to community spaces and theatres.
Written by Alright Mate? director Cally Hayes, it takes an intimate look from a dad's perspective about early parenthood and mental health.
At a time when we did not know when we could tour the live performance again, we rehearsed and recorded this adaptation entirely on zoom. This is the unabridged audio drama but check out the Cracking Podcast for the abridged version containing three episodes with interviews with Dad Matters UK, Acacia and Dads in Mind, who share their thoughts on the drama and talk about how they support dads who have experienced something similar.
VR
In 2019, we were commissioned by PATH to develop 3 five minute films for an exciting new immersive virtual reality (VR) training resource for healthcare professionals working with families in the antenatal and postnatal period - collectively known as the perinatal period.
These films have been developed from the original live performance of Cracking which toured to theatre venues and community spaces in 2019/20 and was part of a wider Alright Mate? project to create spaces for communities to talk about men’s mental health in early parenthood.
We are really excited to be adapting this work to create an immersive training experience that will help practitioners reflect on their clinical practice to respond to the perinatal mental health needs of dads and partners.