Oisín McKenna On Queer Identity, Capitalism And Mental Health

Ahead of his show 'Admin' as part of Live Collision Festival, Oisín McKenna talks about turning the personal into performance.

Oisín McKenna On Queer Identity, Capitalism And Mental Health

Dublin and London based writer and performer Oisín McKenna is bringing his new work in progress show ‘Admin’ to International Live Collision Festival.

“Admin is a solo show I wrote about moving to London. It tells a lot of stories about my first year living in London and around the work I’ve done, relationships I’ve been in, stuff around the politics and the culture that I think are interesting or funny,” Oisín explains.

“It’s about using my personal stories to tell a political story about the relationship between capitalism and mental health exploring labour conditions, housing, insecurity and an alienating perfectionist culture and how this can create crises in mental health.”

Oisín McKenna On Queer Identity, Capitalism And Mental Health

Oisín McKenna moved to London to pursue his dream of becoming socially mobile. Now, he is having an existential crisis in a Pret A Manger toilet, trying to remember his mindfulness techniques. Exploring the relationship between class, capitalism and health, ADMIN is about being poor, precarious and lonely, and adding items to your Watched List on eBay in the hopes of feeling better.

Oisín says that he has found more creative freedom in London and being part of a larger queer scene brings anonymity compared to the sometimes claustrophobic conditions of Dublin’s queen scene.

“It’s much bigger and that can mean different things. It’s potentially easier to access a sense of community in Dublin, partially because of the scale of it. I felt very embedded in a queer community in Dublin in a way that I don’t neccesarily in London.

Oisín McKenna On Queer Identity, Capitalism And Mental Health

“In saying that the scale of London is quite nice. There are so many different cultural and political things you can get involved in and it’s also quite nice that not everyone knows each other. In Dublin that can feel really warm and welcoming but also quite suffocating.”

ADMIN takes place in the Cube, Project Arts Centre this evening (Friday, April 26) at 9pm. For tickets visit livecollision.com

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