HAPPY LAD: Preview Performance
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Happy Lad is a new solo show by Tyler Gracie exploring masculinity, class and what it means to be a young working-class man trying to be happy through the story of two Gen Z brothers. Happy Lad asks what it really means to be a happy lad when you’ve spent your whole life being told what a man is supposed to be.
Tyler’s practice sits between theatre, spoken word and rap, having graduated from the Northern School of Art in 2026. Direct, funny and blisteringly vulnerable, Happy Lad draws on his own experiences growing up in a working-class coastal town and the realities of two young men in forgotten towns today. The show explores the pressures placed on young men, the ways they’re taught to perform masculinity and what happens when the promise that you’re supposed to be strong, successful and sorted doesn’t match the reality of your life, through the story of two brothers.
It also looks at the increasingly complicated spaces young men are navigating online. The language of self-improvement, success, masculinity and the manosphere can offer seemingly simple answers to much more difficult questions about loneliness, insecurity, relationships, purpose and belonging.
Happy Lad is produced by Sidequest and supported by Arts Council England, ARC Stockton, Northern School of Art, The Vixen, Hartlepool and Sunday for Sammy.
Tyler’s practice sits between theatre, spoken word and rap, having graduated from the Northern School of Art in 2026. Direct, funny and blisteringly vulnerable, Happy Lad draws on his own experiences growing up in a working-class coastal town and the realities of two young men in forgotten towns today. The show explores the pressures placed on young men, the ways they’re taught to perform masculinity and what happens when the promise that you’re supposed to be strong, successful and sorted doesn’t match the reality of your life, through the story of two brothers.
It also looks at the increasingly complicated spaces young men are navigating online. The language of self-improvement, success, masculinity and the manosphere can offer seemingly simple answers to much more difficult questions about loneliness, insecurity, relationships, purpose and belonging.
Happy Lad is produced by Sidequest and supported by Arts Council England, ARC Stockton, Northern School of Art, The Vixen, Hartlepool and Sunday for Sammy.
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Where is it happening?
ARC Stockton Arts Centre, 60 Dovecot Street,Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherARC Stockton Arts Centre
