Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen (NHB Modern Plays)

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. 'I'm thirty-six, I'm a comedian, and I'm about to kill my boyfriend.' '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

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).