Yellow Power Ranger is well-performed, well-constructed, comedy-golden chaos.
Spending a beautifully sunny Saturday evening watching Nic Sampson’s Yellow Power Ranger at Soho Theatre was incredibly fitting – the show was warm, entertaining, and quite honestly had us in tears with how much we laughed.
Fresh from the Edinburgh Festival 2024, the show is a critically acclaimed comedy featuring Sampson playing a caricature of himself—a boy-turned-man who co-starred in season 14 of Power Rangers back in the day. We experience a Convention set-up, with the audience playing ‘fans’ of the show. The lights give the show the allure of showbiz, complete with empty chairs where the other Rangers should be sitting (they turn up!).
A grinning Nic gleefully answers questions that the audience asks as they read off their prescribed prompt cards, perfectly conveying his role as an in-over-his-head, slightly deluded one-hit-wonder.
Dramaturgically, the show revolves around Nic’s career as a teen, his current career, and his goals for the future. His delusion serves as the comedic heartbeat of the piece, as he seriously deconstructs scenes from the Power Rangers show, reads scenes from his new romantic novel, and stages a scene from his new film, a Power Rangers blockbuster.
Personally, the highlights of the show lie at the edges where it teeters on surrealism, such as the presence of the malevolent owl that haunts Nic just like the ghost of his career, and the tear-inducing lines of narrative he reads to us with a straight face, drawing from his limited inspiration of a desk and a chicken pot noodle.
The show is a laugh, and there are moments where it feels very silly, but Nic’s audience interaction is clever and witty, and he can captivate an audience with his marvellous, fault-less character-comedy. The writing mostly ties together, and a lot of the jokes come full circle, with the show reaching a satisfying conclusion.
Nic’s show also has a real heart to it. It very much captures the zeitgeist of today, where everyone aims to be relevant, to be seen. The self-aggrandising, the individualistic mentality, and the fame-seeking are all echoes of a generation that grew up with social media. It also highlights the alienation one might feel if they seek the success they once experienced as a younger person – how can you one-up yourself? Where is the line between chasing your dreams, and being realistic?
Sure, marketing is certainly a more reliable career, but does that mean we should all give up chasing our dreams?
Yellow Power Ranger is well-performed, well-constructed, comedy-golden chaos. Go and see it.