Review: I’m Not Being Funny, Bush Theatre  

What would you say if you had to put your entire life into five minutes of stand-up? Would you choose your best stories, your biggest regrets, or the lessons that shaped you? And now if you were doing it in the shadow of a terminal illness, are the most important parts of your life anything but funny? 

Bush Theatre’s I’m Not Being Funny is a moving 90-minute two-hander that manages to confront heartbreak while, despite everything, having us truly laughing by the end. Peter and Billie, a millennial couple with a young daughter, desperately try to find ways to make their child laugh again after being hit with some devastating news. The play opens with Peter (Jerome Yates) rehearsing a painfully awkward “tight five” for a stand-up gig Billie (Tia Bannon) has signed them up for. His routine is packed with terrible dad jokes, involving cracking nuts and spider’s legs, earning more laughter from his own discomfort than from the punchlines themselves. From there, the play moves through snapshots of their relationship as they revisit memories, searching for humour not only for an audience but also for themselves. Beneath the comedy lies a deeper attempt to hold onto the life Billie has lived while grappling with the future she may never reach. 

Yates and Bannon bring an effortless chemistry to the stage. Their familiarity with one another feels authentic, making them instantly recognisable as the kind of couple many of us know and love. Bannon captures Billie’s warmth and lust for life which is only more hard-hitting when we discover her story and how much she just wants to see her daughter grow up. Yates compliments this well with Peter’s quieter, awkward energy, the kind of person for whom stand-up comedy would be a personal nightmare and therefore all the more entertaining to watch. 

Piers Black’s writing navigates the difficult balance between humour and grief with real humanity. Moments of laughter, sadness, and silence are woven together so that the audience rides the emotional highs and lows alongside the characters. The lighting and sound design subtly guide us through past, present, and imagined futures, which ties the production together. 

At times in the early stages of the play some of the performances seem very placed, as though the actors are still settling into the emotional rhythm of the piece. But as the story progresses, the tenderness shines through and by the final moments, when the characters can no longer avoid the truth or hide behind humour, the rawness becomes palpable. It is here that the play is at its most affecting, capturing not only everything Billie still has to live for, but also everything she stands to lose. 

Writer: Piers Black 
Director: Bryony Shanahan 
Producer: Prentice Productions 
Set and Costume Design: Amelia Jane Hankin 
Lighting Design: Lucía Sánchez Roldán 
Sound Design and Composition: Asaf Zohar 
Intimacy Direction: Tommy Ross Williams 
Casting Consultant: Fran Cattaneo 
Associate Producer: Alice Linnane 
Production Manager: Harry Fearnley-Brown (New Wolf Productions) 
Company Stage Manager: Roni Neale 
Stage Management Placement: Liza Evers 

I’m Not Being Funny plays at the Bush Theatre until Saturday 13 June.