Following an acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Diary of a Mad Man, a darkly comic and unsettling one-man show, makes its London debut this November.
Recommended by The Times.
★★★★★ The Real Chrisparkle
★★★★ Corr Blimey
“A riveting performance by Mark McAuley; unsettling, quirky, humorous and disturbing – not to be missed.” – The Real Chrisparkle
Performed and directed by Irish actor and filmmaker Mark McAuley, and written by Derek Masterson, the production is a contemporary Irish reimagining of Nikolai Gogol’s classic story, exploring loneliness, identity, male isolation and the increasingly blurred lines between reality and fiction.
A man wakes up in a psychiatric hospital. He tells us how he ended up there. But can we believe a word he says?
We meet an ordinary office worker who feels increasingly invisible, overlooked and frustrated by a world that seems determined to ignore him. Desperate for recognition and a sense of belonging, he retreats into social media, where his grievances find validation and his version of reality begins to take on a life of its own.But is he recounting what really happened, or inventing a story to cope with the awful situation he finds himself in?
Blending dark comedy, physical theatre and multimedia, Diary of a Mad Man takes audiences inside the mind of a man whose grip on reality is slowly slipping. Funny, disturbing and heartbreaking, the production asks uncomfortable questions about the stories we tell ourselves, the need to feel seen and what happens when those stories become more powerful than the truth.
The show played 26 performances at Edinburgh’s Assembly Roxy during August 2026, attracting enthusiastic audience responses and critical praise.
For McAuley, whose screen credits include Vikings and Into the Badlands, the production is an opportunity to explore some very contemporary questions through a story first written almost 200 years ago.
Although inspired by Gogol’s original, this version places the character firmly in today’s world, where loneliness, social media, status anxiety and the search for recognition can become a dangerous combination.
The London run offers audiences an intimate theatrical experience that challenges them to question not only the character’s version of events, but perhaps some of the stories we tell ourselves too.
Gripping. Funny. Heartbreaking. And frighteningly relevant today.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Theatre: Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, Islington, London EC1V 4NJ
Dates: Tuesday 24 – Saturday 28 November 2026
Performance Times:
Tuesday 24 November: 7:30pm
Wednesday 25 November: 7:00pm (Press Night)
Thursday 26 November: 7:30pm
Friday 27 November: 7:30pm
Saturday 28 November: 2:30pm and 7:30pm
Run Time: 60 mins (no interval)
Tickets: £20 / £17 (includes booking fee)
Booking Link: https://weareoldred.co.uk/whats-on/diary-of-a-mad-man/
Show Website: https://www.markmcauley.com/diaryofamadman
