★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The premise of this show is simple: Anna Mann, a character performed by Colin Hoult, is going to die, and is choosing to spend her last hour on Earth telling her life story to her final audience. The story is full of a number of husbands, a big stick and many excellently performed hand gestures.
This show is absolutely incredible, and there are two perspectives that can be taken as to why I think this is the case. The first is the slightly more objective: You cannot deny the strength of either the performance or the material. Hoult has the audience wrapped around his little finger throughout the show, guiding them through what is an exceptionally well-crafted narrative that manages to effortlessly straddle the line between realistic and ridiculous (Highlights include descriptions of Anna’s previous ‘well-known’ work, her first attempt at acting etc.) This makes for a night out where you’re laughing every five seconds, but that also has a genuine heart to it, which could burst at any minute (Much like Anna’s). At no point do you forget that you’re watching a character, but it doesn’t matter that Anna isn’t real. All that matters is that she’s bloody funny.
From a more subjective point of view, the ending of this show made me feel a lot of things and I think that if you, like me, are some flavour of neurodivergent, it will do the same for you. It hit particularly hard for me because of parallels with my all-time favourite piece of theatre, ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’, which, although some of the messages and songs can be read through a neurodivergent lens, is by no means representation of neurodivergence. Having those same messages conveyed through what seemed to me to be an explicitly ND angle meant so much to me, and left me speechless when trying to describe the show on the phone to my partner (I settled for just saying ‘It’s Autistic Hedwig’ over and over again).
So to summarise, this is an excellent night out that I would recommend to anyone, but if you are of the neurodivergent inclination, this is a must-see.
Review by Ella Catherall
Colin Hoult: The Death of Anna Man Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath 21:10 (1hr) Aug 3-16, 18-28 £14-13 (12+)
