If the title of Marcelo Dos Santos’s Edinburgh Fringe hit Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen sounds familiar, you’ve probably taken an anxiety assessment at some point. The Comedian, an unnamed British stand-up whose love life is functionally one long panic attack, knows how you feel. His opening line, “I’m thirty-six, which is fine,” also may resonate with a lot of audience members attending Studio Theatre’s production of the one-man show. He repeats “it’s fine” with the kind of quiet dread that evokes a well-known comic strip dog sipping coffee as an inferno rages around him.
With Pride in full swing, audiences looking for an evening of raunchy queer comedy need look no further than this hilarious deep dive into one man’s psychological landscape. The Comedian’s comedy is revelatory, exposing his gnawing insecurities in a flurry of self-deprecating jokes as he works the crowd like a pro, playing for laughs, gasps, and the attention he desperately craves. In his personal life, he searches for new sexual adventures through “The App,” a dating app “which encourages sexual connections and mental health issues.” But when he meets “the American,” everything changes. The American, beyond being a chiseled hunk with a perfect jawline, is also empathetic and sincere. He sees through the Comedian’s self-effacing glibness, recognizes the all-consuming anxiety behind it, and still appreciates him for who he is. He also delivers some deliciously ironic twists as he starts to let our protagonist in on his own secrets.
Debuting Feeling Afraid… on American shores during Pride Month is no accident. The Comedian is out and proud… and still a mess. The show affirms his identity, celebrates the beauty and joy of his connection with the American, and offers a hilarious snapshot of the ups and downs of gay life. But it doesn’t pretend that accepting one’s sexuality is the end point of the process of accepting oneself.
Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen is now playing at Studio Theatre through July 12, 2026. Tickets are available at studiotheatre.org.
