British-Brazilian-Australian writer Marcelo Dos Santos, whose charming comedy Backstairs Billy about the Queen Mother and her openly gay factotum has just opened successfully in the West End, now has an infinitely less charming play opening on the fringe.
Feeling Afraid As If Something Is Going To Happen, directed by Matthew Xia, is a 65-minute monologue, acted by Samuel Barnett, who is reprising the critically acclaimed performance he originally gave at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival.
Barnett will be remembered by many for his sensitive performance in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Here he plays a 36-year-old stand-up comedian who describes himself as a professional neurotic. Full of self-loathing, he indulges in casual affairs and has never had a proper relationship. He is used to rejection.
He channels his horny life and its traumas into comedy, exploring his vulnerability, intimacy, anxiety, ego and truth. Self-absorbed, swimming in Lake Me (as he puts it), he blabbers dirtily. He desperately needs an audience to laugh and resents them when they do.
He falls in love with an American doctor, who suffers from cataplexy, a medical disorder, which means he mustn’t laugh. If he laughs, he is liable to die.
The monologue is partly the comedian’s comedy routine and partly an account of his dating. It is difficult to separate the two since they constantly overlap. Barnett gives a super-energetic performance, highly strung and full of passive-aggressive asides.
How far are you willing to go for a laugh? What makes you laugh? What do you find funny?
I didn’t find Feeling Afraid As If Something Is Going To Happen funny at all. I recommend you see Backstairs Billy instead, which is far more enjoyable and accessible.
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