FROM SATIRE TO CYNICISM: A CONFUSED JOURNEY THROUGH GRIEF AND AI

By Staff Writer | Press Invite

More of a one-man-play than a solo comedy show, Daniel Bye’s Imaginary Friends at the Soho Theatre follows one man’s attempt to grieve his optimistic do-gooder brother by becoming increasingly nihilistic and morally dubious.

His character, a late night TV personality, relies on a pretty classic comedy trope: how do I make someone’s death about me? A great trope, which I think almost always works as a hook, and while there were some comic gems within the piece — there’s an ongoing bit about Costa coffee which really made me laugh — unfortunately I left the theatre questioning whether the real imaginary friends were the people who left so many positive reviews in Edinburgh. 

I was not won over by the play’s narrative and although I could understand Bye — or his character, whether that’s actually Bye or not is unclear — was fighting to regain his humanity after falling down some sort of hallucinatory rabbit hole, the play left me with a pretty cynical aftertaste.

The play does not pull its political punches. I’m a big fan of political comedy and do not seek out sheer escapism from my entertainment. However, the sketches with his ‘imaginary’ political talking-head friends felt somehow both undercooked and overwrought. Bye mentioned at the end of the play that quite a lot of it has changed since Edinburgh, which could explain why much of the play still felt like a first draft. 

His thoughts and fears about AI in particular, though accurate, felt more like a lecture than a play and more than a play than any sort of joke. 

If people want to hear someone spin out about AI they can just come chat to me for free at any point of the day. 

The lecture-esque quality of Bye’s delivery created a barrier between the comedy and the audience, making it hard to know when to laugh and when to performatively nod along to the idea that Nigel Farage is not a very nice guy. 

I was not sure if the play was supposed to be funny at all, but Bye kept calling himself — or, again the character, that’s unclear — a comedian throughout the 90 minutes. Was that in reference to his life before his brother died? Or were his hallucinogenic observations supposed to be funny? If the latter is the case, they were not landing as such. 

I can understand what he was trying to do, but I wish I’d seen this show in Edinburgh last year when, from the reviews for that show, it seemed more fully formed and packed more of a punch.

Imaginary Friends is running at Soho Theatre until Saturday 24 May.

WEBSITE

Photo Credit: Benjamin Smith