★★★★

“She’s the kind of person you want to hang out with. Someone you might meet in a club bathroom on a night out and follow around, desperate to be her friend”

Watching Amy Gledhill is like stepping into a warm bath. This show won the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 Best Show award and it’s no wonder. She is so in control and comfortable on stage that the audience can just let the waves of comedy wash over them. She’s a pro in action.

Gledhill walks out and shimmies, then sultrily asks the audience if they’d like to go to bed with her. The moment instantly turns ridiculous as she hands out knickers for the audience to throw at her in enthusiastic passion.

She balances natural charm with self-deprecating honesty, which make us instantly warm to her. She’s the kind of person you want to hang out with. Someone you might meet in a club bathroom on a night out and follow around, desperate to be her friend.

She welcomes the audience into her life, without shame. Well, almost without shame. There’s a moment where she tells a particularly blue anecdote and hides behind the stage curtain so we can’t look at her as she tells it. Of course, that makes everyone like her more.

Her quips, observations and wordplay are masterful but it’s her physical comedy which really has the audience in stitches. Whether that’s the humiliation of a Go Ape harness, how she’d look with a bumhole for a mouth, her jaunty pre-sex ritual, or the struggles of standing up on the top deck of a bus, she nails each one with gusto.

She is unafraid to poke fun at situations she finds herself in, but is never cruel to herself. Her impression of an internet troll who attacked her physical appearance is strangely empathetic, and with that, hilarious.

The show is not without some serious emotional punch. It’s an exploration of confidence and self-esteem and a couple of her revelations are heart breaking.

But no moment is in there without purpose. After a national tour and run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the show is a well-oiled machine. Each passing aside comes back around, nothing is unnecessary. The show, as well as being very funny, is an artfully constructed piece of work.

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy”

The Double Act is an incredibly witty and fiercely topical dark comedy by Mark Jagasia. It follows Billy Bash as he visits his estranged ex-comedy partner while on tour, discovering he’s now a reclusive madman obsessed with their past. As he appears to wear the title of Britain’s Third Most Offensive Comedian like a reclaimed badge of honour, he fails to recognise the descent of his comedy career. Can Cliff convince him to let him out the dark, and join forces to resurrect their old act? With darker forces from their past at play, that is doubtful.

From the very start The Double Act keeps the audience on their toes asking questions about the next mystery. Beginning with Billy (Nigel Betts) and Gulliver’s (Edward Hogg) search for Cliff (Nigel Cooke) in Cliff’s own flat. Gulliver is Cliff’s lodger, who appears to be deeply affectionate and attentive of Cliff, keen to get him back on stage. Yet after finding Cliff – and questioning whether his pet python is real or not – Gulliver’s true identity and motivations is another mystery the audience is esteemed to investigate. Jagasia succeeds in holding such intrigue and managing to keep everyone laughing with joke after joke that hit on almost every other line. It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy. The themes of forgiveness, guilt, value of laughter and retribution are constant throughout. Billy represents the ‘you can’t say anything nowadays, and yet I’m saying it with no consequence’ comedy brigade, where Cliff represents an almost Christmas future-like ghost of him. And unknowingly to the pair of them, Gulliver is their ultimate critic. The question of Billy’s morals within his comedy style is always alive, in a way constantly brought up by himself as he is persistently on the defence. As Cliff questions “What if some laughs are bad?”, the play takes a controversial and heated debate and transforms it into a meaningful and thoughtful conversation about the value of comedy.

The cast are undoubtedly incredible. Nigel Betts plays Billy with a stern focus, never dropping his proud successful straight man ego. His physicality also of his repeatedly breaking back made me wince. Nigel Cooke as Cliff was adorably child-like, in spite of his insanity driven creepiness. He excels in his physical comedy, as does Edward Hogg as Gulliver, both sharing hilarious moments of movement on stage. Praise here is pointed towards Movement Director Sian Williams. Oscar Pearce’s direction keeps the action constantly moving, assisting the play’s tendency of keeping the audience in anticipation. Overall making the very intimate space, with a wonderfully rundown naturalistic living room design of the set (Sarah Beaton), feel larger than life from the stalls. This is complimented by the subtleties of the sound design (Dan Balfour), which goes from silence to creepy horror music when driving the tension, alongside the occasional spooky snake sound effect.

Overall, The Double Act is a hilarious and exciting show that successfully brings life to comedy ghosts of the past. A masterpiece of dark comedy drama.

MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER

Soho Theatre

★★★★

“She’s the kind of person you want to hang out with. Someone you might meet in a club bathroom on a night out and follow around, desperate to be her friend”

MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER

Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 28th January 2025

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Paul Gilbey

Previously reviewed at this venue:

MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER

MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER

MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy”

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 27th January 2025

by Rachel Isobel Heritage

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE DOUBLE ACT

THE DOUBLE ACT

THE DOUBLE ACT