Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness – Soho Theatre

This Review was published on Totally Theatre's Website 2 weeks ago - here it is for reference as play has now left London.


Gather round Ladies and Gentlemen and behold one of the strangest but at the same time compelling shows to hit London Theatre Land since Queen Victoria ruled the old Empire.

Written by Anthony Neilson the Scottish playwright who in recent years has been commonly associated with the "in-yer-face theatre" theatrical movement. Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness is no exception to the rule – set in 1881 the play reconstructs Edward Gant’s traveling show for the final time to the unsuspecting Soho Audience.

Striding forth and presenting what hides behind the red curtain is “Edward Gant”, a Opium fuelled adventurer, explorer, fighter and collector of stories who aims to bring us a freak show spectacular from the realms of the 19th Century about the “Amazing Feats of Loneliness” with his troupe of 3 actors who travel the country and quite possibly the world as they explore Gants worldly mystical stories through freaky sometimes grotesque re-enactment in comical circus fuelled fashion to such a degree that it has a Muppet Show quality. Just wait for the pimples to make an appearance on stage (don’t ask – you simply have to see this to believe it).

Without interval and at about 1hour 25mins the play bravely switches from circus freak show that isn’t scared of using innuendo to something just as surreal but more serious when the actors encounter the “Phantom of the Dry” whom appears only when an actor forgets ones lines (all part of the play of course). Speaking to a friend after the play it could be said that this part of the story though vivid, could potentially come across as confusing. But if you can get past the confusion of the surreal Teddy Bears who want an imaginary cup of tea its hard not to sit up and mentally engage in this production as the actors themselves appear to also engage with the audience on their new journey of loneliness far more effectively than the previous two staged stories about a girl with pearl pimples and a man, heart broken, through losing his love after she is stung by a wasp.

Edward Gant played by Simon Kunz is everything you would imagine a Victorian travelling showman looking the part in Top Hat and Tails rounded off the perfect look with slick Phileas Fogg Moustache, the mystical mans performance comes across as engaging and polished and should be commended, however the hardest work comes together by Sam Cox who plays the old army boy Jack Dearlove while at the same time pulling off a truly comedic performance as an Italian Cassanova “Salvatore Avaricci” who is drawn to the art of acquiring as much as possible while seeking mysterious love. The rest of the cast consisting of Paul Barnhill and Emma Handy round off the rest of the case with flare and likability enabling the audience to care for their plights no matter how strange.

Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness will be enjoyed if you can catch it in its brief run at the Soho theatre, as long as your not offended by 19th century humour, exploding pimples and bloody brain surgery all of which wouldn’t seem out of place on an episode of Little Britain – but unlike Little Britain this is actually good with solid acting performances, a script that will make you sit up and think and a set design thanks to Tom Scutt that takes you back to 19th century weirdness with school boy day dream intrigue. A fine piece of theatre that experiments and does things differently from the rest, just don’t take anyone who might be squeamish.


Actors’ performance 4 stars
Script 4 stars
Set/stage design 4 stars

4 stars


By Alexander van Terheyden