Accessible, amusing, but not ground-breaking
Written and performed by Jacob Grunberger, Stop Trying To Look At… (previously my D**k) is an autobiographical story, featuring enough of the kind of jokes you’d expect from a play with this title to keep an audience with this particular comedic taste happily amused.
The show features a mixture of mediums, from rap and anecdote, to choreographed expressive dance and long interludes that feel more like stand-up comedy. Grunberger explores his childhood, adolescence and mental health: we learn of the loss of his father early to cancer, some of how growing up in a single parent family shaped him, and his experiences at Bristol university, featuring ‘drugs, clubs and posh white girls’.
The theatre was sold-out, Grunberger had the audience laughing from the first line, I have no criticism of lighting, sound or direction – all of which were eminently up to scratch – but the performance lacked depth, particularly given the subject matter.
Grunberger is confident and at ease on stage, but for a performance supposedly exploring the complexities of several life experiences which are, to be frank, pretty commonplace, I wasn’t convinced it was saying anything particularly worthwhile, or indeed anything at all.
The dance sections added little, and the only parts of the show which felt like they actually were vulnerable, or exposed, were the raps, although these still felt quite unrefined. The audience was certainly on Grunberger’s side, and for a certain audience (young straight men) no doubt impressed the importance, and acceptability, of opening up about trauma and mental health – but I think the appeal of this performance is limited.
Nevertheless, this was a funny and pleasant – if not particularly profound – performance from Grunberger. Runs until 1st June.