Review: LOUISE YOUNG: FERAL, Soho Theatre

“Let me paint some pictures . . .”

As Louise Young makes clear in the first few minutes of Louise Young: Feral, the one thing she struggles with is doing anything in moderation. The title of the show, Feral, is an accurate summary of Young’s past, and it feels like she has lived hundreds of lives before becoming a standup comedian.

The majority of the show is Young telling us about what it was like living in Newcastle upon Tyne as a half-Turkish, half-Geordie gay woman, a combination that leads to some interesting situations and some hilarious anecdotes. She has, as she says, an awareness of her “working class-ness” and describes her addiction-riddled family to us, claiming that “You should never blame your upbringing . . . But I like to!” 

Listening to Young feels like you’re hanging out with her at a pub - it reminded me of times when I’ve met up with long-distance friends and we’ve only had a short amount of time to catch up on a crazy amount of stories. And, just like some might be familiar with, Young has a tendency to ramble, going off-topic before snapping out of it and telling herself to focus. It’s quite endearing and makes the daredevil feel a little more human after hearing about her insane life. There also isn’t much crowdwork, with Young typically using call and response when interacting with the audience. 

There are some dark moments in the show, including when Young theorises why she always became the loudest, drunkest one in the room, guessing she was trying to escape the fear of others she carried with her after growing up with addicts. She also discusses the lack of funding for mental health in the UK, emphasising the importance of groups like the Crisis Team and how they are unable to properly do their jobs as they do not have the money required.

I won’t spoil all of the stories Young tells, but some highlights include a Celebrity Autopsy drinking game where Young and her friends would take a drink every time one of the prescriptions they were on was found in the toxicology report, using her degree in Drama to get valium from doctors and even claiming to be Catherine of Aragon while in prison. But the absolute highlight of the show is from her time in a care programme in which she and others in the group are given the task of looking at a raisin, an exercise of mindfulness that really does work - with context. 

And it’s not just Young herself who knows her life is a  bit insane. She recounts the time Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne came to one of her shows and, after giving her a big hug, told her, “It’s like we’ve had the same life,” leading Young to ask herself a few questions about the choices she’d made, as she’s been “playing stuff down for career reasons” and hasn’t even told us some of the craziest stuff that has happened. 

Ultimately, Louise Young: Feral is a fun show that will have you thinking your life is pretty tame compared to what Young has gone through. And, according to her, there are still plenty of stories she hasn’t told - I look forward to hearing them!

Louise Young: Feral ran from 25 to 27 January at Soho Theatre.

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