Awards

• Winner of Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2022

Overview

'I'm thirty-six, I'm a comedian, and I'm about to kill my boyfriend.' A permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up comedian finally meets his Mr Right – and then does everything wrong. Is Mr Right quite what he seems? And just how far will the comedian go to get a laugh? Marcelo Dos Santos's play Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen is a dark and bitingly funny one-man show about vulnerability, intimacy, ego and truth. It premiered in the Roundabout at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, produced by Francesca Moody Productions, directed by Matthew Xia, and starring Samuel Barnett. The critically acclaimed, Fringe First-winning production transferred to the Bush Theatre, London, in November 2023. 'What a fine work this is... full of humour, lines written with the whiplash timing of a master... a sense of real feeling, an understanding of the psychological terror of constant failure and impending annihilation... urgent, fresh and utterly compelling... confirms Dos Santos as a writer of enormous talent' — WhatsOnStage 'Fast, filthy and powerful... a perfectly formed monologue... chillingly, thrillingly transgressive' — Evening Standard 'Blending dark humour, pathos and a hearty dash of millennial angst, [this] deserves to be the next Fleabag... the gag-count is ridiculously high and the writing overall has a Bennettian finesse... it's enviably accomplished' — Telegraph 'Enthralling... a compelling and troubling character study with some killer punchlines' — Guardian 'A cleverly constructed piece of writing, and often very funny' — The Stage 'Frank, funny and occasionally filthy... a nice piece of writing, following in the footsteps of Fleabag' — Independent 'Very entertaining and sharply funny' — Stagedoor Edinburgh Fringe First Award

Full Product Details

9781839042591

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Reviews

'Blending dark humour, pathos and a hearty dash of millennial angst, [this] deserves to be the next Fleabag... the gag-count is ridiculously high and the writing overall has a Bennettian finesse... it's enviably accomplished' * Telegraph * 'Enthralling... a compelling and troubling character study with some killer punchlines' * Guardian * 'A cleverly constructed piece of writing, and often very funny' * The Stage * 'Frank, funny and occasionally filthy... a nice piece of writing, following in the footsteps of Fleabag' * Independent * 'Unsettling and deeply clever... The questions posed by Dos Santos's knife-sharp writing are satisfyingly complex... It's a very funny show, but also a telling one and it confirms Dos Santos as a really interesting writer, using an examination of the mechanisms of comedy to peer closely into the workings of the human heart' * WhatsOnStage * 'Very entertaining and sharply funny' -- Lyn Gardner * Stagedoor * 'Funny and pleasingly absurdist... An entertaining, sometimes outrageous hour, brought to a very skilled climax' * Time Out * 'Is this the male Fleabag? Marcelo Dos Santos's fevered monologue about a romance on the verge of a nervous breakdown... holds us spellbound for an hour' * The Times * 'Pristine writing... both hilarious and heart-wrenching' * Fest Mag * 'Outrageously entertaining and endlessly surprising... an extraordinary piece of theatre' * The Skinny *

'A cleverly constructed piece of writing, and often very funny' * The Stage * 'Very entertaining and sharply funny' -- Lyn Gardner * Stagedoor * 'Blending dark humour, pathos and a hearty dash of millennial angst, [this] deserves to be the next Fleabag... the gag-count is ridiculously high and the writing overall has a Bennettian finesse... it's enviably accomplished' * Telegraph * 'Frank, funny and occasionally filthy... a nice piece of writing, following in the footsteps of Fleabag' * Independent * 'Funny and pleasingly absurdist... An entertaining, sometimes outrageous hour, brought to a very skilled climax' * Time Out * 'Unsettling and deeply clever... The questions posed by Dos Santos's knife-sharp writing are satisfyingly complex... It's a very funny show, but also a telling one and it confirms Dos Santos as a really interesting writer, using an examination of the mechanisms of comedy to peer closely into the workings of the human heart' * WhatsOnStage * 'Is this the male Fleabag? Marcelo Dos Santos's fevered monologue about a romance on the verge of a nervous breakdown... holds us spellbound for an hour' * The Times * 'Enthralling... a compelling and troubling character study with some killer punchlines' * Guardian * 'Pristine writing... both hilarious and heart-wrenching' * Fest Mag * 'Outrageously entertaining and endlessly surprising... an extraordinary piece of theatre' * The Skinny *

'What a fine work this is... full of humour, lines written with the whiplash timing of a master... a sense of real feeling, an understanding of the psychological terror of constant failure and impending annihilation... urgent, fresh and utterly compelling... confirms Dos Santos as a writer of enormous talent' * WhatsOnStage * 'Fast, filthy and powerful... a perfectly formed monologue... chillingly, thrillingly transgressive' * Evening Standard * 'Blending dark humour, pathos and a hearty dash of millennial angst, [this] deserves to be the next Fleabag... the gag-count is ridiculously high and the writing overall has a Bennettian finesse... it's enviably accomplished' * Telegraph * 'Enthralling... a compelling and troubling character study with some killer punchlines' * Guardian * 'A cleverly constructed piece of writing, and often very funny' * The Stage * 'Frank, funny and occasionally filthy... a nice piece of writing, following in the footsteps of Fleabag' * Independent * 'Very entertaining and sharply funny' -- Lyn Gardner * Stagedoor * 'Funny and pleasingly absurdist... An entertaining, sometimes outrageous hour, brought to a very skilled climax' * Time Out * 'Is this the male Fleabag? Marcelo Dos Santos's fevered monologue about a romance on the verge of a nervous breakdown... holds us spellbound for an hour' * The Times * 'Pristine writing... both hilarious and heart-wrenching' * Fest Mag * 'Outrageously entertaining and endlessly surprising... an extraordinary piece of theatre' * The Skinny * 'A rollercoaster of a play... powerfully subtle, until it's not meant to be, and then it's joyfully theatrical... comedy magic' * LondonTheatre1 * 'Terrific... Marcelo Dos Santos' script is structured beautifully, blending coarse humour with dark, brittle wit and he signs it off with a delicious punchline. Underlying the laughter, this is a multi-layered piece that explores the human fear of and need for close relationships' * Reviews Hub * 'Razor-sharp... a very clever play... Dos Santos' writing uncovers new ideas at every turn... has all the laughs of a comedy set while presenting a twisting narrative that keeps you guessing' * Broadway World * 'A sizzling monologue about sex and fatal attraction... Dos Santos writes beautifully' * Arts Desk *

Author Information

Marcelo Dos Santos is an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter. His plays include: Backstairs Billy (West End, 2023); Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen (Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2022 and Bush Theatre, London, 2023); New Labour (RADA, 2014, directed by Richard Wilson); Lionboy adapted from the novels by Zizou Corder (Complicite, 2013 and 2014); Lovers Walk (Southwark Playhouse); and Cheer Up, This is Only the Beginning (Liverpool Playhouse). He was named Most Promising Playwright at the 2024 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Backstairs Billy.

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