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A masterfully written one man show that interrogates masculinity and the climate crisis in both a hilarious and sinister manner. Summary
Rating
Good
F**king Legend is an experimental stand-up comedy-cum-disturbing confessional, staged and written by Olly Hawes. Hawes takes centre stage, unravelling a narrative that blurs fact and fiction, interrogating masculinity and its consequences in the current age.
This is no average comedy show; Hawes takes us to some disturbing lengths, from cheating on a girlfriend to an ambiguously consensual sexual encounter, to the climate crisis and capitalism. He jumps with ease between hilarious banter and a sense of foreboding doom.
The first half of the show focuses on a self-reflective, ironic narrative of a male stag do. Assuming his role as the heterosexual, cis, middle-class white man, Hawes pokes fun at himself. Embodying the pretentious southern lad who lacks social awareness (we’ve all encountered a few like this in a pub garden in London), he is the sneering posh boy who claims him and his friends “aren’t like the others”. And then goes on to prove that they are exactly like them.
A drug-fuelled party of mansplaining and hitting on women gets sinister when the boundaries of consent become distorted and infidelity is rife. Our narrator claims he doesn’t even want to do it but his primal masculinity drives his actions, reflecting on the damage this frame of thinking causes. Just when you think you’ve avoided audience participation, Hawes aggressively challenges an audience member. Chaotically unhinged and claiming to be joking, unease lingers. He’s scarily good at jokey ‘banter’ that nobody but the person whose ‘joking’ actually finds funny.
The second half of the show delves more deeply into the themes of doomsday, of the climate and refugee crises. Mixing politics and social commentary, Hawes’ writing contends with difficult themes that for the most part display an excellent craft for writing.
Hawes takes the role of the director and speaker, frequenting dialogue of ‘cuts to’ and ‘picture this’, world-building with merely his language. He instructs us to picture our own protagonist. You might choose Hawes himself or someone you know personally, but really he’s asking us to reflect on our place in these social and political environments of rising emergency, stating ‘nobody in this room is much better than he was’.
F**king Legend does not hold back but rather pushes the audience to feel. And that they do. Moods rise and fall, the audience attentively beguiled by Hawes’ wit and compassion. The writing is stellar but at times, it’s difficult to keep up with the ever-changing narrative.
Written by: Olly Hawes
F**king Legend plays at Riverside Studios until 21 December. Further information and tickets available here.
