Comedy Review: Ahir Shah At Soho Theatre
Ahir Shah's back, with a deeply personal hour of stand-up. In last year's Control, Shah's personal revelations were often a gateway into the political.
Duffer, though, plays out as an hour of raw emotion harnessed by an act of will — and the same fiercely deft linguistic choreography you know from Shah of yore, plus some recurring riffs on Bohemian Rhapsody — into a narrative arc.
It's both far more gripping and far less comfortable viewing for that.
Halfway through the hour a stranger in the next seats leans over. She's had the foresight to lay in a bottle of wine and offers to top up our empty glasses — on the basis, we guess, that nobody should have to stare down the barrel of this many raw truths without a shedload of alcohol in front of them.
If this makes it sound like a joyless affair, it's not remotely that.
So it's five stars for Shah. Which, as he points out in his show, would bring him level with a recent Raphael exhibition. As good as an architect of the Grand Renaissance.
Ahir Shah: Duffer runs till 27 October 2018 at Soho Theatre. Tickets start at £14.
