REVIEW: This Is Normal at Old Red Lion Theatre, 19 - 23 September 2023

"This is sharp and intelligent comedy, with a very rare sparkle” ★★★★ ½

It's often said that contemporary issues need a few years to settle in the mind of a writer before they can be properly explored. They need the benefit of context and hindsight. If that's the case, it's still early days, but Stuart Warwick's THIS IS NORMAL may well be the first meaningful piece of work examining the Covid-19 pandemic and its echoing aftermath that I've yet seen or read, the first tentative steps towards translating that strange time into art and committing it to our cultural imagination.

THIS IS NORMAL is an impressive piece of simple theatre, a one-act, one-man show about an NHS porter's daily life in the shadow of Covid. It's ostensibly a comedy, described as ‘for fans of Fleabag and This Is Going to Hurt', which are indeed excellent and appropriate comparisons. The difference here though is that This Is Normal is engaging with our recent past, while also being timely and topical. It achieves this effect with talent, wisdom, and brilliance, weaving in small, daily encounters with homophobia, hilarious tales of patients on the wards, heartwarming personal histories, and razor-sharp observations about life after a pandemic. This can be a very difficult thing to achieve, without appearing as though topical issues are shoehorned together into a narrative, but Warwick manages to keep absolute relevance, showing how different issues influence and inform others. This takes some very skillful writing.

It is courageously real, unashamed to illustrate the reality of the ‘awkward, messy people’ that make up our everyday heroes. Our character gets lost in a graphic sexual fantasy while wandering the ICU, lazily eats his lunch in the chapel, and swears in front of patients. But he cares deeply about his work, and this dichotomy is incredibly touching.

All this of course is brought to life by a masterful performance from Warwick himself, with all the quirks and beats that make up a human being. He has extraordinarily good comic timing, but with only a small, timid audience, the often-hilarious moments were received with perhaps more reservation than they deserved. Punchlines are solid and laugh-out-loud, though, almost every single one landing expertly – an example of that beautiful harmony achieved by the coupling of great writing and stand-out acting. This is sharp and intelligent comedy, with a very rare sparkle, and I could totally see this character going further.

The production as a whole sees a minimalist but immersive set that places you square in the heart of a hospital, and the sound and lighting is simple but seamlessly cued. If I were nitpicking, I might have liked some more sound design – the rattle of a trolley, the beep of vital machinery – but, to be fair, Warwick's writing is so good that the words alone put you in that space.

This Is Normal is so much more than your average day-in-the-life. I recommend seeing it if you can. You'll laugh, you might cry, and you'll definitely learn something about you, me, and the state of society. Its content is rich and relevant, examining the past while simultaneously calling out the urgency and preciousness of our NHS and its people. It raises a mirror to everyone who held themselves out of windows to clap for our NHS workers and asks us to think about what it actually means to be one of them.

THIS IS NORMAL by Stuart Warwick

Directed by Stuart Warwick

Old Red Lion Theatre, 19th – 23rd September

Box Office: https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/this-is-normal.html

Reviewed by Alix Owen