Punk Performance on Clinical Depression 4 ½ (IG)NOBLE TRUTHS Returns to Toronto

Following a national tour across Ontario and B.C., Thomas McKechnie's powerful punk performance lecture on clinical depression 4 ½ (ig)noble truths returns to Toronto for Workman Arts' Rendezvous with Madness Festival. Framed as a matter-of-fact lecture Thomas McKechnie's 4 ½ (ig)noble truths is an intense, intimate and deeply personal attempt to articulate his experience living with clinical depression.

When the initial lecture format falls short Thomas makes use of objects, poetry, sound, and violent action to embody and share his perceived reality. 4 ½ (ig)noble truths is presented by Workman Arts' Rendezvous with Madness Festival, and is produced by zeitpunktheatre in association with Why Not Theatre. October 12 - 21, 2018. Pay-What-You-Can-Afford at the door; online advance tickets $12 + optional donation. workmanarts.com/rwm2018-performance.

Let's pretend for a second that we're OK. What does that feel like? A lot of things are not OK with Thomas but he's got a ten-pound sledgehammer and is pretty sure that could solve at least one of his problems. If he howls will you howl back?

If we howl together will we be healed?

Featuring 4 ½ totally useful pieces of advice for battling depression, 4 ½ (ig)noble truths offers a vocabulary to talk about mental health through the articulation of one person's experience of depression that's meant to give others a new language to talk about it.

Thomas McKechnie is a Toronto-based playwright. Writing credits include, theatre: 4 1/2 (ig)noble truths (zeitpunktheatre, Why Not Theatre) The Thirst of Hearts (Soulpepper Theatre Company) Valkyrie (Rarely Pure Theatre Toronto Fringe 2013). Collective: A Wake for Lost TIme, there/GONE, A Kitchen Sink Drama ([elephants] collective).

zeitpunktheatre was created to present 4 ½ (ig)noble truths at the Summerworks Performance Festival in 2016. It has since been performed in Toronto (The Theatre Centre), Victoria (Intrepid Theatre, UNO Fest), St. Catharines (In The Soil Festival) and Thunder Bay (Superior Theatre Festival).

Why Not Theatre is an agile, international theatre company based in Toronto, Canada, rooted in the values of innovation, community and collaboration. Our work is inventive, cross-cultural, and reflects our passion for the exploration of difference. We challenge the status quo, by examining what stories are being told, and who is telling them. More than just a theatre company, we develop creative strategies to build a healthier and stronger arts ecology. We MAKE and tour critically-acclaimed and award-winning new work, SHARE resources with other companies and artists to produce and tour their work, and PROVOKE change through new producing models and the presentation of work for new audiences. We are led by a core team of Founding Artistic Director Ravi Jain, Managing Director Owais Lightwala, Executive Producer Kelly Read and Associate Producer sandra Henderson. More at www.theatrewhynot.org

Rendezvous With Madness, presented by Workman Arts, is one of the first and largest mental health and the arts multidisciplinary festivals in the world. Now entering its 26th year, the festival is newly expanded to include performance and visual arts, as well as the film program for which it's become known. Workman Arts is the longest-running multidisciplinary arts and mental health organization in North America, and supports the professional development of aspiring, emerging and established artists with lived experience of mental health and addiction issues.

https://workmanarts.com/rwm2018-performance/