Why support Everything Is Absolutely Fine?
Cameron Grant Memorial Trust is supporting the livestream of Everything Is Absolutely Fine, a new musical comedy about anxiety. Why are we doing this, and how can you support Everything Is Absolutely Fine too?
Alice Keedwell performing in Everything Is Absolutely Fine (Credit: Trust A Fox Photography)
Cameron took his own life in November 2014 when he was only 21. Outwardly content and fulfilled, nobody knew he was ill, but in a letter he left he described battling symptoms of depression for over 7 years before he died. Shortly after Cameron died Carol, my wife, and I set up the Cameron Grant Memorial Trust together with Alastair, our son and Cameron’s brother. As we do not want anyone else to suffer in silence like Cameron, the Trust works to reduce mental health stigma, and encourages everyone to speak up and ask for help.
We believe open, honest conversation is a vital step to improving mental health and reducing the chance of getting seriously unwell. It is very encouraging to see great progress in recent years with many celebrities, politicians, sports stars and others in public life sharing their own struggles with mental health. However, there is so much more to be done before everyone talks to each other as easily about their mental health as they do about physical health.
We were introduced to the musical Everything Is Absolutely Fine by producer Hannah Elsy. The Cameron Grant Memorial Trust is always on the lookout for new ways to encourage conversation around mental health, so we were immediately drawn to the idea of using musical comedy to do this. We love the fact that Everything Is Absolutely Fine is based on the lived experience of writer and lead performer Alice Keedwell and her struggle with anxiety when she moved from London to Berkhamstead. It is a special achievement to find humour in such tough experience!
Hannah is from the village where Cameron was born and brought up, and where Carol and I still live. We first knew Hannah as a classmate of Cameron’s in the village school and we hoped to support the UK Tour of Everything Is Absolutely Fine in April 2020 before COVID put paid to that. We are full of admiration for the determination Hannah and House of Blakewell showed as they worked tirelessly to find a way of bringing Everything Is Absolutely Fine to an audience, even in these difficult times. They will now livestream the performance from the North Wall in Oxford on the 15 May 2021 (postponed from 22 Jan because of pandemic lockdown), and theatres from across the UK are sharing this livestream. It is fantastic that livestream technology is now so widely available that this is possible.
The challenges of the pandemic mean this is an especially important time to be talking about anxiety and mental health. To encourage this conversation and to support Everything Is Absolutely Fine, please buy a ticket from any of the participating box offices to watch the livestream from the comfort of your own home. COVID restrictions permitting, there will also be a small audience for the live performance at the North Wall itself, and to watch the livestream on a large screen in The Core Theatre, Solihull; tickets are available at the same link.
Whether you choose to go to the North Wall or The Core Theatre or to watch at home, please do buy a ticket and join us at 7:30pm on Saturday 15 May for the wonderful Everything Is Absolutely Fine! Further information is available here on our website.
Alastair, Carol and Evan picture on a wonderful family holiday with Cameron in Jamaica in September, 2014
