LET’S TALK ABOUT DEATH, BABY
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Tue 25-Thurs 27 Sept
Welsh writer and actor Dick Johns returns to Chapter Arts Centre at the end of the month with this new solo show, breaking the uncomfortable silence around the subject of death with a hearty guffaw. Let’s Talk About Death, Baby blends storytelling, music and old photographs to consider why we try to preserve our memories, in objects and souvenirs, and how we might be remembered after we have kicked the bucket, met our maker and joined the choir invisible…
This is the follow-up to Johns’ critically-acclaimed 2016 show What Midlife Crisis?, which pondered the experience of middle-age, becoming a father, and his ardent love for 80s pop music. The 51-year-old performer has appeared in The Office, My Hero and High Hopes, as a standup alongside Lee Mack and Shappi Khorsandi, and in a number of BBC radio plays – all under his ‘acting name’ Dick Bradnum. He’s also earned recognition as a writer, winning the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Award in 2015 for his piece Joy. In performing his solo shows under his real name, however, Johns injects a degree of sincerity to this line of work. Dressed sombrely in black and bouncing on a bright orange space hopper, Johns may well bring a whole new meaning to the idea of the comedian dying on stage.
Tickets: £12/£10. Info: 029 2030 4400 / www.chapter.org (SP)
