We kicked off the first international collaboration for Many Good Men
last month with Station Europe and Teatrul Masca in Bucharest, with
the live performance taking place this Friday (15th of November). I’m so
excited to start what I hope is going to be a fascinating journey
collaborating with as many different groups around the world as possible,
finding out what makes gender based violence and the radicalisation of
masculinity both such a global phenomenon and one that is also so
specific to each culture.
We recently met the fifteen 18-25 years old participants, who are all based in
Bucharest. We talked about safe online research and gave them some
homework: Ask YouTube the question: “How to get a girlfriend?” Afterwards
we’ll have had a well-being session with our local therapist. In our final session, we
asked: Who sets men’s expectations about what it means to be a man?
The group decided which institution they think provides the most
powerful role models for ‘men to be men’.
When we worked with young men in Edinburgh and Glasgow football was
the top of the list, but in Romania it’s Trap music and the Church. In Edinburgh
we told the story of two football players who happened to be at an Incel
shooting, this led them to research incels online and they
started to become radicalised by the content they found. Many Good
Men is about how we are all vulnerable to radicalisation by online
content and how to think critically about what we consume. It also asks
tough questions about how embedded misogyny is in culture and how
that can give tacit support to the radicalisation of those men who are the
most vulnerable to these kinds of hate campaigns.
On Friday we’ll be presenting a hybrid interactive show, using Swish, our
new platform, which we’ve designed so participants can actively engaged in this new
digital form of forum theatre that is Many Good Men.
If you want to get a taste of what happened in Edinburgh in February this
year you can watch this short video here (3 mins). We have a longer 20
minute documentary about the process of making Many Good Men
(Edinburgh 2024) which is very nearly finished. So keep your eyes peeled
for that at a festival near you soon!
If you would like to come to the online broadcast of Many Good Men
Romania 2024 then drop us a line at contact@civicdigits.com, tickets are
very restricted but if you feel that this is a must view for you, let us know.
Now the question I need to ask is, what should I take as a present for our
fantastic partners Station Europe and Teatrul Masca? Haggis? Single
Malt? Shortbread? Minecraft or Grand Theft Auto T Shirts? Suggestions
very gratefully received.Wish us Bon Voyage or apparently “drum bun” in Romanian!
Clare