A Bolton-born theatre director is bringing an award-winning play back to this home town this weekend.

Toxic, which deals with the subject of men’s mental health, made its debut at the Greater Manchester Fringe in one of the periods during lockdown when restrictions were lifted.

Written by Dan Lovatt, it picked up two awards, and now audiences at the Octagon will get two chances to see a play which Connor Goodwin believes is more relevant than ever.

Director Connor Goodwin

“We’ll probably never have the opportunity to work on a play like this again,” he said. “It has undergone so many rewrites since we first did it; it has allowed us to freshen it up and to make it the best version of the play it can be.”

Toxic is the story of best mates Andy and James, both of whom are struggling with depression for various reasons. It’s a story about friendship and also very much a celebration of northern humour.

“It opens with two best friends who are struggling and having hard time trying to help each other,” said Connor. “It’s something you see so often in society. Everyone has got their own issues and have things going on and we don’t really talk about it especially in northern communities.

“So many of my friends and me to extent as kid didn’t cry and didn’t didn’t see a male figure in your life cry. If you did it was seen as sign of weakness.

“I think we are coming through that now. Some aspects of society, not all, are changing and we’re more familiar with thoughts like ‘it’s Ok to not be OK’ and we have charities working hard to promote the importance of speaking up if you have a problem but there is still a lot of work to do.”

In spite of what might be seen as dark subject matter, Connor is keen that audiences are not put off coming to Toxic.

“There is plenty of comedy throughout the play,” he said. “We have really tried to lean into that so there’s lad culture, things people can relate to. It’s about banter, it’s puns, it’s jokey humour.

“So many of us mask the way we feel with humour which makes the characters in Toxic completely relatable. We’re just giving you a snapshot into these guys lives

“Just because they are depressed, it doesn’t mean they walk around with a big long face all day. They still get on with life, they’re still watching footy, they’re still going to the pub with their mates for a pint.

“The lead character’s in the middle of a love life drama and bordering on being an alcoholic but he’s still having a laugh.

“This is definitely not a miserable play. I’ve done many miserable plays in my time and this is not one of them!

“The humour just adds to the experience and hopefully the audience come away having been taken on a journey with real peaks and troughs the entire time. It’s an emotional rollercoaster for both the audience and the characters.”

Toxic is just part of the output of Divided Culture which Connor has created with Dan.

 

“We’re now fully set up as a Community Interest Company,” he said. “We have a range of projects including outreach and working in different communities.”

Connor became interested in theatre from an early age.

“I started out at Casey Lee Jolleys theatre school near Burnden Park when I was about eight or nine,” he said. “I’d use my paper round to pay for my sessions.

“Then when that closed I went to the Amanda Fairclough Academy in Horwich. But for me it as less about performing on stage, it was more about being in the creative industries.

“I had a great drama teacher at school and I dabbled in directing. I realised that my opinions were being asked for and taken notice of.”

From school Connor went to Bury College and then Manchester Met.

“I probably got mad on the power,” he laughed, “but I knew I wanted to be a director rather than a performer.”

Having worked in retail, Connor made the decision to head to London for a year where he completed a Masters in theatre directing at the prestigious Mount View Theatre School, graduating last year.

“With the company Dan and I have now I think I’ve found my niche,” he said. “It certainly gets me out of bed!”

As Toxic prepares to embark on a tour taking in venues in Leeds, Manchester and Edgehill as well as Bolton, what hopes does Connor have for the play?

“It can only carry on as a small scale production for so long,” he said. “If someone sees it and wants to invest in it and stage it in bigger venues that would be amazing.

“But Dan and I are now determined to establish ourselves. We have got funding for a series of projects in 2025 but none of them are shows.

“We’re still theatre-makers at heart although we’re equally committed to the various outreach projects we have. We’re also doing more writing and there’s a short film in the offing too.

“For us 2024 has been the year we’ve set things up. We’ve spent so much time on funding and business plans and getting a five-year plan down. Now all the boring admin stuff is done and 2025 will be the year we absolutely smash it.”

Toxic is at the Bolton Octagon on Saturday with matinee and evening shows. Details from www.octagonbolton.co.uk