Here's an alert: Anyone who can make it to Shoreditch Town Hall tonight or tomorrow to catch Hannah Ringham's new show should do so. That's a lot of you I realise, okay let's narrow it down: Anyone who can blah blah the above, and who has ever asked themselves "what is actually funny though?" should go and see - No... Yes, anyone - No. Everyone... Look I suppose my point, really, is that I saw it last night and I was hugely and happily reminded of just what an influence this artist was on me. And I thought about what it might be like for someone who's never seen Hannah before, or heard her writing, and I suspected that it might be mind-blowing. I first saw her perform nearly twenty years ago in those early Shunt cabarets, and I've worked a lot with her since, both in Shunt and out. I never actually saw her perform on her own though until last night (apart from the showings we'd give each other when we were making a show, which I've said elsewhere are among my happiest memories of watching anything). And I noticed myself laughing aloud last night a lot more than anyone else in the audience, sure, but that's normally a good sign. And I was reminded of this blog - In fact that's one of the main reasons I'm recommending the show here, just to let Hannah fill in some blanks - And I thought once again about whether we bill what we do as "theatre" or "comedy", because people should know that they are allowed to laugh, but we don't want to break any promises either, but also, dammit, we want to plant our flags. We do want to go: "This is funny. This has heart, this little, just this. Doesn't it?" We want to check, at least... Listen to me, going "we"! I had forgotten how good Hannah's work was for me. I recommend you get some.(And if you do book tickets on the site don't worry, as I worried, about having to print your own. It's just the site being stupid. Just go.)
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