Talkback, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sounds
Actor and writer Michael Patrick is in rehearsal for his lead role in The Tragedy of Richard III at the Lyric Theatre in October.
If you’re dithering at going to a night of a Shakespeare history play, then don’t. Just listen back to the actor’s interview with William Crawley on Radio Ulster’s Talkback. It’s both funny and sad all at once.
Michael Patrick became well-known for his one-man play My Left Nut. It was based on the true story of how he developed a swelling on his testicle and lived with that as a terrible secret.
His father had died of Motor Neurone Disease when he was eight, so he couldn’t confide in him. He was a teenage boy who felt he couldn’t tell his mother. So he cried himself to sleep as the swelling grew. That play developed into an exploration of grief for his father.
After school in Belfast, he went to Cambridge to study sciences but never really went to lectures – instead he fell in love with acting. There were shows and plays and a career that he loves.
I’ll be the first wheelchair actor to perform at the new Lyric
— Michael Patrick
But in 2023, Michael Patrick, like his father before him, was diagnosed with MND - a too cruel twist. “We’re the only family in Ireland with the gene,” he said.
The positive is that gene-targeted therapy could reverse what has happened. In the meantime, he has a wheelchair that does 26 miles in one charge.
His character in Richard III, like himself, has motor neurone disease.
“I’ll be the first wheelchair actor to perform at the new Lyric,” he said.
He talked practically about his diagnosis, tempering the pain that comes with such devastating news with humour.
It’s an interview full of exhilarating, funny and light moments – a laugh in the face of suffering.
There is also his impeccable taste in music. AC/DC’s Big Balls is brilliantly funny and appropriate given his own particular left nut issue.
Switch the tempo, and singer Donal Kearney has a beautiful haunting voice.
Listen back to the actor’s interview on Talkback with William Crawley on bank holiday Monday August 26 then go to the Lyric, it promises to be great.
Michael Patrick’s story is not exactly laugh-a-minute but if anyone grasps life by the balls, it’s him.
