Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
Captain
Amazing
Soho
Theatre Spring 2014; several tours, then
Southwark Playhouse 2024
When you've got a dead-end job, a failing marriage and a sick child, a red cape and its accompanying superpowers can be very alluring.
Alistair McDowall's one-hour monologue, here engagingly performed by Mark Weinman, presents one of life's designated losers, who reaches for some comfort in imagined adventures as a superhero.
But not only does real life have a way of constantly breaking in, but the fantasies aren't all they're meant to be – Batman and Superman aren't very friendly, and Evilman confuses him by being nice – and sometimes it's difficult to keep the two worlds separate in his mind.
Backed by deliberately childlike drawings by Rebecca Glover that evoke both the comic nature and the essential innocence of the man's fantasies, Weinman not only narrates and depicts the losing struggle against despair but plays both sides in several conversations, most comically when Captain Amazing argues with Batman over which is the more super hero, most touchingly when his young daughter tries to retain her faith in Daddy's specialness.
It is a small but successfully realised piece, quietly sad and comic in equal proportions.
Gerald Berkowitz
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Review - Captain Amazing - Soho Theatre 2014