Soho Theatre London -until 16th February
Reviewed by Heather Chalkley
4****
We were thinking our view of the stage is blocked until this bear of a man walked on. Comedian Garrett Millerick carries a big presence both physically and energetically. His use of the stage and booming voice fills the room.
Millerick tells a story of two halves, sown together with an honesty and sensitivity that keeps the audience fully engaged. He unfolds the traumatic experience of loosing a baby and almost loosing his wife. The overwhelming impression is his love, to do the the thing he does best and desperately holds on to throughout- to make his wife laugh. With no control over everything else happening, he could at the very least do that.
Millerick’s command of the stage was balanced with the real emotion seen in his eyes, the soft and light tones of his voice. He uses the spoken word to build a clear picture of that awful night, leaving you with no illusions about how desperate it was. He gave a true life experience of how impersonal the NHS can become when it is at full stretch and beyond. There will be some part of this performance that will strike a cord with every audience member and then make you laugh harder and deeper as a result. Because you can find something to laugh about in the context of every situation. Garrick says, in fact it is important to do that so you can live through it. Garrick illustrated this with examples of humorous situations taken out of context and turned into something nasty and ugly by the national press.
In the end the self professed clown finished with the chorus of Chesney Hawk’s ‘I am the one and only’, which was very funny within the context!