Date: 9 August 2026
Time: 12.20pm
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker 2
Running time:
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Reviewed by: Eileen Inglis
Funny, tender and unexpectedly devastating, Heart Beats Strong gets under the skin of what it means to become a man.
Heart Beats Strong is billed as “funny and dance-y and a little bit silly”. It has music, movement and humour, but that description doesn’t quite prepare you for the emotional weight of what unfolds. I certainly wasn’t expecting to leave the Pleasance in floods of tears.
Created and performed by Alfie Wickham, Kai Porter and Noah Manzoor, the show is inspired by their own teenage diary entries to tell the story of three boys who we first meet at school and then follow as they begin the complicated journey into adulthood.
The three come from very different backgrounds. One is British Pakistani, growing up between different cultural expectations; another is a working-class Londoner whose dad has largely been absent from his life; the third is queer and beginning to explore his sexuality within a big, close family. Their experiences are different, but their stories overlap around friendship, belonging, relationships and what it means to become a man.
The clever structure of the show takes us towards each boy’s 18th birthday. Eighteen is supposedly the moment when a boy becomes a man, but here it seems to be the point where things begin to unravel. School friendships shift, family relationships become more complicated and each of them finds himself navigating adulthood without necessarily feeling equipped for it.
Some of the most impactful moments are also the smallest. One young man, feeling increasingly isolated, realises he has nobody to even buy a round of drinks for. Another, exploring his sexuality, finds unexpected tenderness at a moment when he feels particularly vulnerable.
These are big subjects – sexuality, cultural identity, absent parents, mental health and male friendship – but the show never feels as though it’s box-ticking a list of issues. Its strength lies in the ordinariness of these young men’s lives and I’m sure many of the younger audience members will see themselves in the characters.
Wickham, Porter and Manzoor are brilliant, natural performers. There’s something slightly awkward about them at times, in the best possible way. They don’t feel like polished actors demonstrating what it’s like to be a young man; they feel like three young men letting us into their world.
Perhaps that’s why Heart Beats Strong lands with such force. Behind all the discussion about a “crisis of masculinity” are simply young people trying to work out who they are, where they belong and how to ask for what they need.
If you’re a young man, if you’re raising one, or if there’s a young man in your life you care about, go and see Heart Beats Strong. And afterwards, maybe hug the young men in your life a little tighter – if they let you.
Tickets:
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/heart-beats-strong
