I’m Not Being Funny at the Bush Theatre is a play which at one point has you laughing at Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On and then later crying during the same song.
It is a bittersweet story of a young couple with a 3-year-old child, forced to face a future no one wants to think about.
Billie (Tia Bannon) has signed up her and her husband, Peter (Jerome Yates), for an open mic night. With daughter Ruby tucked up in bed, they retreat to their living room to work out a ‘tight five’ of stand-up.
They recreate the stand-up setting with karaoke mics and a lamp acting as a spotlight. Peter’s approach is jokes of the dad variety, Billie’s is stories, but soon they start drawing on the past for inspiration.
As they reminisce, we flash back through their shared history as a couple, revealing first meetings and kisses to starting a family. It slowly builds to a revelation and the reason for the stand-up.
Jerome Yates and Tia Bannon have a great rapport as Peter and Billie. They expertly balance humour and silliness with more emotional moments. The living room set is well used and, with different lighting, smartly doubles as places from their past.
The middle section starts to feel a little sluggish, as it goes over familiar ground rather than pushing the narrative forward, but it gets back into its stride as it heads towards the denouement.
I’m Not Being Funny is an appropriate title for this play, the idea that what might seem funny isn’t really.
Humour is used as an escape when there is little to laugh about and helps to deliver some joy and hope in dark times.
Final thoughts
I’m Not Being Funny is a play about the simplicity of a remembered past and the complexity of a known future that’s not going to go in the direction you would expect or want.
It’s a funny play with a good smattering of laughs, but it is also at times heart-wrenching. I’m giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
I’m Not Being Funny, Bush Theatre
Written by Piers Black
Directed by Bryony Shanahan
Cast: Tia Bannon and Jerome Yates
Running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes without an interval
Booking until 13 June; for information and to buy tickets, visit the Bush Theatre website
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