Who decided there are some stories boys shouldn’t tell? Who decided that certain conversations are off limits? Who taught us that silence is strength?
A group of friends gather at their usual spot. They’re playing video games, laughing, winding each other up, rapping over instrumentals and doing what they’ve always done. It’s familiar. It’s loud. It’s home.
Then one of them says something nobody saw coming.
What starts as another ordinary conversation slowly becomes something else. One by one, the boys begin telling stories they’ve never shared before. Stories about growing up. Addiction. Relationships. Mental health. Shame. The pressure to always be okay. The pressure to always be a man.
As each story unfolds, they begin to realise that the very things they’ve hidden from one another are the things they’ve all been carrying.
Written by Enfield playwright Ellis Witter and Dumisani “King Cas” Moyo, Stories Boys Don’t Like to Tell is a powerful new play inspired by real experiences. Blending humour, music and emotional honesty, it doesn’t tell you what masculinity is. It simply invites you into a room where young men stop performing for one another and start telling the truth. And in doing so, it asks a simple but important question.
What might change if boys had spaces where they could speak freely without fear of judgement?
Funny, moving and deeply authentic, this is theatre that refuses easy answers. It will make you laugh. It may make you uncomfortable. It will almost certainly make you think differently about the conversations we’re having, and the ones we’re still avoiding.
Whether you’re a young person, a parent, a teacher, a youth worker or simply someone who believes stories have the power to change lives, this is a conversation worth being part of.
Some stories change the people who tell them.
Others change the people who hear them.
The only question is…
Who decided these stories weren’t meant to be told?
