Say what you like about his politics, you can’t fault the work ethic of Mark Thomas. Last autumn he fronted a show about predicting the future, he is already working on a piece about the NHS and here he tells the uplifting story of how he set up a comedy night in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin.
This is a more theatrical work, directed deftly by Joe Douglas, complete with supporting cast. Thomas is joined by two extremely likeable performers who did the gig, lanky Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada, nicknamed “Omelette Boy”. The trio deliver a tale of triumph and underline the undeniable potency of comedy in the darkest of situations.
Thomas is all eye-popping passion and self-deprecation as he takes us through the process. We see the results both onscreen and onstage. The wit is universal and also utterly specific. Gags about Tinder and Trump jostle with jokes about pipe bombs and arrests. Abu Alhayjaa’s stand-out routine is about how whenever there is a curfew there is a population boom nine months later.
A play about training stand-ups is not new. Trevor Griffiths wrote The Comedians in 1975. But while both explore the complex nature of humour, Showtime from the Frontline is starkly different. Griffiths’ aspiring entertainers never had to negotiate checkpoints manned by teenage soldiers, “like a paramilitary version of The Inbetweeners”.
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