Review: FEELING AFRAID AS IF SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN, Bush Theatre

A comedian with a boyfriend who physically cannot laugh: it’s a winning concept. In Marcelo Dos Santos’ razor-sharp one-man show about love, death, and comedy, theatricality is used as a weapon. This is a very clever staging of a very clever play. 

You would be forgiven, upon entering the Bush Theatre space, for thinking you were attending a queer stand-up show. An exceedingly gay soundtrack of Troye Sivan and Kylie booms through the space, and the stage is set with a single mic, a stall, and a red velvet backdrop. Feeling Afraid continuously plays with these expectations, twisting the form of a stand-up set into its storytelling. As a way of structuring a show, this could easily fall flat, but De Santos’ writing uncovers new ideas at every turn, keeping the audience on their toes.

A solo show that knows what it’s doing, it’s no wonder Feeling Afraid went down so well at the Edinburgh Fringe. Dos Santos’ script takes us in and out of a stand-up set as The Comedian (Samuel Barnett) walks us through his dating mishaps, family relationships, career woes, and thoughts about death. Amid a sea of one-man shows focussing on a certain gay hookup app, this one never feels cliche; despite his constant theatricality, there’s something very human about the character we meet. The plot kicks off when he starts dating an American man who is everything he’s no... and who poses a certain existential threat to his identity as a comedian and need to make people laugh. The writing is full of shocking sexual anecdotes, but also with sharp observations about modern dating, living in London, performing, and, well, Americans.

History Boys star and two-time Tony nominee Samuel Barnett gives a performance so slick that it’s hard to believe he didn’t write the words he is speaking. He embodies the neurotic, ever-performative nature of his character, clearly at home on the stage.

It would be easy to forget that this is a performance that has been directed - but Matthew Xia’s staging shines through, using some very clever microphone work to add depth to the story. There are no stage directions in the script, so it’s clear that Xia has built this show into what it is. Feeling Afraid is a fantastic example of what happens when a writer, a director, and an actor come together to polish up the same vision, and this production feels like it belongs equally to all three of them.

There are some sections that could be slightly cut down: the show would perhaps be even stronger were some of the dating stories replaced with more of a look into The Comedian's family dynamics and career. It would also be nice to see a production that leans into the darker moments of the script slightly more. 

I first encountered Feeling Afraid in Edinburgh in 2022, where it ran at Roundabout and won a Fringe First award. Notably, the original presentation of the show was in the round. Xia seamlessly adapts the staging to the Bush’s thrust space, with the Roundabout layout almost recognisable in the ways Barnett ventures towards the audience. It perhaps felt more personal, more directly engaged with the audience in the round, but this version of the show really allows the metatheatricality to come across, with Kat Heath’s set design presenting us with a convincing stand-up show. This world is expanded by Elliot Griggs’ subtle but smart lighting design, and Max Pappenheim’s sound design, which uses microphone and static sounds to build tension.

Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen is an antidote to theatre fatigue - it has all the laughs of a comedy set while presenting a twisting narrative that keeps you guessing. This is a slick, entertaining production that revels in theatricality from a team at the top of their game. 

Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen runs at the Bush Theatre until 23 December

Image Credit: The Other Richard

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