Mamil (Middle aged man in Lycra), starts out in typical mid life crisis way, he says.
Mr Hadlow plays Bryan Cook, a property developer who has accumulated a small fortune building leaky homes and is described as a ''stressed out, self medicating, self loathing arse, killing himself to increase his bank balance while decreasing his golf score''.
The play is set around the results of the global financial crisis of 2008.
But it departs from the usual when he has a bad health scare and joins a peloton to get fit and healthy.
''He goes to the doctor, he gets the finger. Funnily he hates cyclists, just loathes them [beforehand],'' Hadlow said.
Mamil is a sequel of sorts to his 1990s one man show, SNAG.
Where SNAG was about the rise and fall of a businessman and the roller coaster of emotions his life became, Mamil was more sensationalised and the characters more caricatures, he said.
''It has real touching moments, a bit of swearing, a bit of real life.''
SNAG booked out the Fortune Theatre and he hoped Mamil would do the same, he said.
''I love performing in Dunedin.''
Written by Gregory Cooper with input from Mr Hadlow, Mamil stemmed from his time with a peloton of riders in 2011.
He had been surprised to find the conversations were not male oriented (sex and sports), but rather emotional topics such as relationship and health problems, some business, and with the odd rugby references thrown in.
The show was a challenge for Mr Hadlow as he was on stage for a full 85 minutes and played about nine other characters, as well as Bryan, along the way.
''It's a roller coaster. I'm shagged at the end of it.''
Because the characters were so ''vividly different'' he preferred to call the show a one person play.
''I'm instantly having to change my voice and physicality to go with each character. A couple of times I've got into shit so I have to be on my game. It's a step up from SNAG.''
However, the play was not just for cyclists, although families of Mamils or Mawils (Middle aged women in Lycra) would relate, he said.
''It's about reality in pieces, it's satirical, political. I love the character. He rediscovers the man he was when he first met his wife and had his children.''
He does warn the content was R16 rated due to the swearing but said it was not out of context.
''I've done 50 performances of this and not had a complaint. It's real life. It's really in your face, full frontal comedy, drama.''
See it
Mamil, starring Mark Hadlow, premieres at the Fortune Theatre on May 2 and runs until May 16.
