THEATRE REVIEW: Brawn - The Met, Bury.

When I saw the press release for “Brawn” I was very much drawn to the subject matter as I cannot remember seeing anything in the past that addressed this subject – masculinity and the obsession that men have with their body. For that reason I have been very much looking forward to this visit to the fantastic Met Theatre in my local town of Bury.

“Brawn” describes itself as “a raw, emotional and illuminating piece of theatre focussing on Ryan, our sole character who suffers from body dysmorphic disorder – a serious mental health issue related to body image.”

Ryan (Christopher Wollaton) arrived onto a very simple stage set out with a folding chair and some dumb-bells on either side. There was a backing track of some workout music playing as our main character circled the chair with a rather intense look on his face – and taking large gulps of water directly from the bottle. He was clearly in the middle of a focused workout.

What followed was a really interesting 55 minutes of monologue from Ryan, describing his absolute obsession with fitness and making himself body perfect. It started with him describing his body, giving himself some real compliments as he looked at himself in the mirror – he was proud of all the hard work he had put in. He spoke very confidently about his body but he talked about 80% of the job being done – he was not wholly satisfied with what he had created. It was at this point that you sense this percentage would never grow to more than 80%, this being at the root cause of the mental health issues he exhibited.

Christopher Wollaton was the only actor on stage throughout and “Brawn” is also his creation. He has teamed up with his friend Matt Staite – they met at East 15 Acting School where they both graduated in 2014. Wollaton’s acting ability is clear to see but above everything the passion and commitment he makes to this character are what makes this show such a success. His ability to display all of the self-obsessive characteristics that you would expect to see from someone with body dysmorphic disorder is very impressive – he was living every word of his performance.

I thoroughly enjoyed “Brawn” and it lived up to all of my expectations. The one man show builds from a relatively subdued and seemingly simple beginning where Ryan talks very eloquently about his academic life when he was “skinny” but builds into the testosterone-fuelled conclusion. I also loved the fact that questions remained open at the end of the play – what did Ryan choose? Was it his girlfriend who was constantly calling him, was it the draw of seeing the beautiful sky outdoors or was it the lure of his obsession – his home gym.

Reviewer - John Fish
on - 7/6/19