Making his fringe debut with a show about a troubled standup, the actor explains why he loves solo performance, his issues with The History Boys, and why this government’s days are numbered
“It scares me,” laughs Samuel Barnett about doing the Edinburgh fringe for the first time with a one-man play called, rather aptly, Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen. But that fear is a good thing, he stresses. “I want to do things I’ve never done before.”
The play was written for Barnett by Marcelo Dos Santos, is directed by Matthew Xia and has been brought to the fringe by Fleabag producer Francesca Moody. Barnett plays a troubled comedian – at a festival not exactly short of them – and the show initially takes the form of a standup routine. It’s about “how much we lie to ourselves, how much we choose to reveal and how capable we are of being truly vulnerable,” says Barnett. Though, he adds quickly, it is “also really funny”.
