Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen

‘I’m 36 and I’m about to kill my boyfriend…’ says the stand-up comedian as his introduction to his routine. He pauses, ponders, then makes the throat-slit motion to his technician and the stage goes momentarily dark before restoring all things to the top of his show.

The story is of the previously and permanently single stand-up comedian unexpectedly finding love with a man who can’t laugh. This unlikely and ironic pairing only feeds the comic’s insecurities and through his stand-up routine, plus numerous asides away from the microphone, the audience is taken on his vulnerable journey of love and meaning beyond the hedonism that’s been his life.

Samuel Barnett’s comedian has a few false starts before he finds his flow, his personal neuroses fully on display before he’s really got going. Barnett delivers the comic’s routine with such speed and skill, yet it never sounds tired, always fresh. His talent is in layering the comic’s anxieties and performance such that it’s never quite clear what’s real and what is part of his act.

Kat Heath’s design is simplistic – a translucent curtain behind a solitary microphone on its stand; Elliot Griggs’ lighting design is slick and better than any comedy club ought to be; whilst Max Pappenheim’s sound design punctuates the entire show just right. If there’s any issue with the look of this show, it’s that these polished elements are too good for any venue in which this anxious stand-up would be performing.  It’s as if the neighbouring Fringe Festival has moved into the ‘proper’ Festival’s venue, with a routine as sharp as any beneath the Fringe’s canvas roofs.

Yet these design elements help the audience with time and place; performance and aside. Lighting changes and Barnett’s microphone held well away from his body tell us that he’s self-reflecting or offering context through the long-broken fourth wall; then a bold lighting change and unmistakeable sound cue confirms we’re back with the comedian on stage.

Barnett’s acting skill and experience are apparent here: he’s Olivier and two-time Tony nominated, has performed opposite Kate Winslet in feature films, and was the title role of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency TV series, and his performance of a stand-up both performing and hyperventilating is remarkable. And the stand-up is genuinely and robustly funny: the humour is dark, and not for the faint-hearted, but nor is it cruel, or unkind. Its darkness is in the desperation of dating apps, casual sex – and casual everything. There’s little celebration in the comic’s newfound relationship, instead more monologues and internal debate on how he’s doing his best/worst to sabotage it. There are rays of sunshine here, but cynicism reigns – which makes the comedy a little less than satisfying.

Review by Mark Wickett

Photographer: Mark Gambino

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