It’s a very impressive feat to stand up for an hour and talk about your own trauma and experiences in an engaging way that doesn’t feel like a Ted Talk. This is what Matty May has achieved with ‘If You Love Me This Might Hurt’.
We enter, and immediately it’s clear that this is a ‘safe space’, if you’ll excuse the hackneyed term. Bright coloured pieces of paper with odd words scrawled on them on the back wall, and a squishy armchair making up the set, it’s clear this isn’t going to be a dark affair of suicide and trauma. Except really, that’s exactly what it is.
We travel through Matty Mays thirty-something years with them, learning of their fears, insecurities, and most formative experiences, shaping and steering them towards the difficult choices they made when they were at the lowest points of their life. I hesitate to write about their very personal story, as it's not mine to share but will take my cue from May, who opened the show stating that they feel safe enough to talk about their own self-harm, so we should feel safe enough to watch. They share with us their three attempts to die by suicide.
