Ira Brand

'The thing I like about Springsteen is that all his songs are about blue-collar, American, working class, men. You know, men who work on the railroads, and in lumberyards. Real men. I’m not really that kind of guy.'

Meet Ollie. He’s a graphic designer. But he wants to be Bruce.

Break Yourself is a piece about the performance of identity and of gender. Performed in male drag, it is about the relationship between power and desire, the complex landscape of male and female sexual desire, and the desire to be something ‘other’.

And it’s about Bruce Springsteen.

It is also an experiment in constructing personas and alternative identities. A risky, dishonest, head-first, whole-hearted, and perhaps slightly desperate attempt to try and be something they have never been before.

Commissioned by Ovalhouse.
Supported by The Yard Theatre and using public funding by Arts Council England.