Kim Noble: You’re Not Alone, Soho - theatre review

Combining video with arty stand-up, You're Not Alone is a warped, ingenious and deeply uncomfortable 65 minutes
Fearless and tender: Kim Noble performs at the Soho Theatre (Picture: Geraint Lewis)
Geraint Lewis
Henry Hitchings11 March 2015

In the internet age, it’s easy to strike up conversations with strangers but hard to form significant bonds. This is the subject of Kim Noble’s new show, which, through a series of increasingly outrageous pranks and revelations, probes the lonely, disconnected nature of modern life.

Combining video with arty stand-up, Noble’s approach is twisted and unpredictable. Having failed to get a job at B&Q, he makes himself a convincing copy of the company’s uniform and starts working there anyway — though not exactly helping customers. This is one of his more restrained stunts, and some of the others certainly test the audience’s sense of what is socially acceptable.

His response to his neighbours’ noisy bedroom antics is an invasion of their privacy, while his pursuit of a drab man who works at his local supermarket begins winsomely but becomes creepy. More unsettling is his creation of a female alter ego, Sarah, who meets men online. The resulting interactions are priceless, yet we’re bound to squirm as Noble lures these ardent chumps into real-life meetings.

Footage of time spent with his father, who has dementia, heightens our sense of Noble’s own melancholy. As he strips himself bare, both literally and metaphorically, he involves more and more of the audience. Yet what at first looks like demented obnoxiousness ends up feeling fearless and tender. The result is a warped, ingenious and deeply uncomfortable 65 minutes.

Until March 7 (020 7478 0100, sohotheatre.com)

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