EBENEZERWorld
Watching a man labouring to strike up conversations in the smoking area of a nightclub proves not just funny but also touching and uplifting
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Stage — Brian Logan
Ever pretended to use your phone to avoid the shame of being Norman No-Mates at a party? Freddie Meredith’s new show is a 60-minute channelling of that experience, an hour-long cringe at a man labouring to strike up conversations in the smoking area of a nightclub.
Meredith, a familiar face to viewers of Big Boys, Such Brave Girls and other TV series, has alighted on a familiar social type here, albeit one rarely so brilliantly depicted. His alter ego is a shy and insecure beta male desperately trying to look – well, alpha is out of his reach, but even basic social functioning would be an upgrade.
He sounds like a dork, right? And so he is, in his wannabe hip dad-wear, with his fantasies about being in the audience on Top Gear and his furtive Amazon purchasing of “cool T-shirts for men”. But beyond the David Brent stylings is someone much more sympathetic, for whom we’re rooting by the show’s uplifting end.
Meredith performs the hour, all awkward grooviness, nervous laughter and duff small talk with the crowd (starring as his fellow clubbers), with a face that looks perpetually like it could burst into tears. But there’s something heroic in the effort. Social outcast he may be, but he’s doing his best to learn the route – all those codes and behaviours that come so easily to other people – back in.
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“Planning any house parties?” to one other raver, doesn’t quite cut it – but it prompts a wonderfully needy monologue on Meredith’s part, pledging to be the best house guest imaginable. “Can you come to the toilet with me?” Again, it’s not quite how things are done. But it leads to a choice routine involving urinals, men’s fragrances and (in due course) a Lady Gaga karaoke duet engineered to ensnare Meredith a new chum.
Occasionally, there are sketches that stretch the conceit almost to breaking point. Always, we indulge them – because we’re so seduced by the drab tenderness with which Meredith constructs his world, a round-the-back-of-the-building refuge where a loner fails and fails again to learn social skills – and makes devoted friends of his audience while doing so.
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh , until 30 August
Meredith, a familiar face to viewers of Big Boys, Such Brave Girls and other TV series, has alighted on a familiar social type here, albeit one rarely so brilliantly depicted. His alter ego is a shy and insecure beta male desperately trying to look – well, alpha is out of his reach, but even basic social functioning would be an upgrade.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian · Brian Logan. Published 27 Aug 2026, 07:00 pm.
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