TERENCE M C ENEANEY

I am a writer, actor and educator based in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal. In December 2022, I completed a Master of Arts in Creative Practice (Playwrighting) at ATU, Sligo. As part of my Master's, I wrote and performed a play - Trinty: Son, Father, Ghost. As a member of Ballyshannon Drama Society I have acted in many award-winning productions, including major roles in The Importance of Being Earnest, Faint Voices and All my Sons I have also worked extensively as a featured extra in TV shows such as Game of Thrones and Ripper Street. My repertoire includes plays, poetry, and short stories. I am currently writing one full-length and two one act plays.

Byung-chul Han describes an achievement society where one suffers from excess positivity and incessant levels of activity. The hyperdrive for success creates a landscape in which navigation verges on the impossible. Survival depends on the conduct of a proper and acceptable mental health regime. Once the forces of external influence are now internalised as one exploits oneself.

We look to doping for enhancing our capacities and to disguise the effects of the constant bombardment of information and self-assessment. We push through extreme tiredness in a society of work ‘in which the master himself has become a labouring slave. In this society of compulsion, everyone carries a work camp inside. This labour camp is defined by the fact that one simultaneously prisoner and guard, victim and perpetrator.’ 1 The overwhelmed subject scrambles for the reprieve of an identity and purpose. Contemplation and creativity once holding a position of privilege become largely redundant tools playing minor roles in a coping mechanism.

The above offers a theoretical backdrop from which the ‘Man(escaped)’ body of work was developed to offer respite for a masculine subject. The transparent body is acted upon through a series of fictional procedures in the guise of luxury spa treatments. DIY tools become instruments for extreme skin exfoliation and teeth whitening, while the BBQ is utilised for heating rocks in a hot stone massage.