ROB AUTON: THE EYES OPEN AND SHUT SHOW

Soho Theatre

★★★½

“Auton – with the soul of a poet – is funny, self-deprecating, eager to please and brimful of hope”

Genial optimist and shaman-in-a-suit Rob Auton asks us to close our eyes at the opening of his set. For a while we sit in the dark. He asks, have we ever worn trainers that fit as snugly as our eyes in their sockets?

Ironically – for we are briefly blind – he then invites us to see life as he does: full of wonder and curiosity and moments of accidental scintillation.

For the next hour, the comedian conjures worlds where the advice on the side of a washing up liquid bottle – leave the dirtiest dishes till last to keep the water cleaner for longer – is evidence of universal kindness.

He shambles around on stage, a self-confessed hopeless mic-wrangler, appearing like “Harry Styles, only old and depressed”. He has long hair and a beard, like Jesus, which is good for a gag or two.

The ultimate shuteye is death, of course. He reflects on a visit to Heptonstall cemetery where Sylvia Plath is buried (“that’s the kind of stag do’s I get invited to”). He notes how the poet’s fans have left pens and pencils on her headstone. He admires a life that could inspire such affection.

But thinking further, he asks whether he’d swap places – dead with headstone pens or alive with pen in hand.

Alive, he believes, always alive. And what follows is an aching entreaty to the living from all those buried alongside Sylvia Plath, each yearning to return to old hobbies now denied them. Auton is not above moving sincerity in between the cute gags. Indeed, that’s his act.

But then he’s back to life’s oddities. Take blinking. He conjures a parallel world where everything is the same except people make a clucking noise when they blink.

He shambles through his set, delightfully capricious. He swears there’s a script, but he sounds like a wacky dad looking out the car window making on-the-fly observations to entertain bored kids. These thoughts often coalesce into what one might recognise as a joke, other times not so much. (Punchlines are not a priority, he declares early on). There is a fuzzy Work In Progress feel for which his charm mostly, if not entirely, compensates.

This is a funny and surprisingly touching tribute to life as a slender moment of awareness packed with opportunity. We leave the theatre high on his hippyish zeal and optimism.

The show has yet to find its full potential. But in the meantime, Auton – with the soul of a poet – is funny, self-deprecating, eager to please and brimful of hope. The winter chill is thawed by his sunny rays.

ROB AUTON: THE EYES OPEN AND SHUT SHOW

Soho Theatre then UK Tour continues

Reviewed on 1st February 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Rhys Rodrigues

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DEMI ADEJUYIGBE IS GOING TO DO ONE (1) BACKFLIP | ★★★★★ | January 2025

MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER | ★★★★ | January 2025

SANTI & NAZ | ★★★★ | January 2025

BALL & BOE – FOR FOURTEEN NIGHTS ONLY | ★★★★ | December 2024

GINGER JOHNSON BLOWS OFF! | ★★★ | September 2024

COLIN HOULT: COLIN | ★★★★ | September 2024

VITAMIN D | ★★★★ | September 2024

THE DAO OF UNREPRESENTATIVE BRITISH CHINESE EXPERIENCE | ★★★★ | June 2024

BABY DINOSAUR | ★★★ | June 2024

JAZZ EMU | ★★★★★ | June 2024

BLIZZARD | ★★★★ | May 2024

BOYS ON THE VERGE OF TEARS | ★★★★ | April 2024

ROB AUTON

ROB AUTON

ROB AUTON