Award winning British/Brazilian/Australian playwright Marcelo Dos Santos will present his latest play at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a dark comedy-drama which was written specifically for Samuel Barnett. The play is a one-man monologue which revolves around a permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up comedian and his potential Mr Right.
The production will be a stripped back one-man play, presented in the form of a stand-up gig. It has been billed as as "A permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up finally meets Mr Right and then does everything wrong. But is Mr Right quite what he seems? And how far will the comedian go to get a laugh?".
The play is to be directed by Matthew Xia who said: "I've been a fan of Marcelo and his writing for a while, so when he shared this new play with me and explained it was written with the incredible actor Samuel Barnett in mind I leapt at the chance to be involved."
Marcelo Dos Santos has talked about the importance of Samuel to this play, saying "I wanted to write for Samuel who I had admired as an actor for a number of years and I wanted to write something about the contemporary gay dating experience in all its messy, silly, painful glory. The form hopefully gives expression to Sam's brilliant range as a performer as well as unpacking ideas which repeatedly came up in conversation between us; particularly around self-sabotage and shame".
Samuel Barnett is a two-time Tony Award nominee, nominated for his roles in 'The History Boys' and 'Twelfth Night'. In 2022 he starred in ITV's 'Four Lives' and can currently be seen starring opposite Ralph Fiennes in the West End in 'Straight Line Crazy'. He is also known for playing the title role in Netflix/BBCAmerica’s ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’. He has said that he is thrilled to be working with such a fantastic team, going on to say, "This will be my first time as a performer at the Festival Fringe and there is no greater or scarier challenge than a one-person show, so I'm excited and terrified in equal measure."
The play will be produced by the Olivier Award winning producers of 'Fleabag' and 'Baby Reindeer', Francesca Moody Productions, and will run at Summerhall at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from 3rd-28th August. Tickets are on sale now.
Samuel Barnett is available for voiceovers from Anthea Represents. Click his image for his profile page and voiceover showreel.
