Review: Imaginary Friends (Soho Theatre)
- All That Dazzles
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Review by Daz Gale
⭐️⭐️
Award-winning writer-performer Daniel Bye has returned with his first solo show in seven years as the genre-defying Imaginary Friends plays a short season at Soho Theatre as part of a UK tour. Telling the story of a TV personality who finds himself struggling following the death of his brother, he finds himself listening to the wrong voices in his head, coming up with increasingly viral stunts that go a step too far, and ends up wiping out humanity.
Sound light-hearted? You have no idea. Imaginary Friends is a dark story and one that proves increasingly surreal. If you are aware of the phrase “jumping the shark”, Imaginary Friends successfully does that early on through another sort of jump, courtesy of Piers Morgan of all people. I say successfully - it is weird, but the story just gets weirder from then on out. Nigel Farage, Jeremy Clarkson, and even Michael McIntyre all make appearances in the story that gets more and more intense as it goes on.
Before I continue with this review, it must be said that Daniel Bye’s style of storytelling is rather unique in itself, describing itself as genre-defying. To that end, it is bound to prove divisive, and I’m sure there will be those out there who find themselves more enamoured with it. Sadly, I was not one of those people, and given by the people who opted to leave in the interval, I was not alone in feeling this way.
Imaginary Things proved extremely uncomfortable to watch. Now, I have said previously that this can be a good thing in theatre as theatre should be able to make you feel anything if it’s doing its job correctly, and uncomfortable is one of those feelings. In this case, the uncomfortable factor was not enjoyable, and this was due to a narrative style and content that proved too intense and unsettling.
The content of Imaginary Friends felt rather random and didn’t flow together smoothly. While the idea for the show was admirable, in its current form, it doesn’t live up to its promise, with a story that proves tonally inconsistent and improperly paced. It was mentioned that this is a very different version of the show than was seen in a previous iteration 15 months ago. I do wonder if I would have enjoyed this previous version more as something really didn’t connect for me on this occasion.
It feels like a harsh criticism to put on one man who has written and performed this, so let me say, Daniel Bye is clearly a talented performer. Though this was the first of his shows I have seen, I got a sense of his charisma from his pre-show speech and post-show plug - I found this side of Bye far more captivating and open to enjoy. It was when he took on the character that fills Imaginary Friends that he lost any sort of connection with me.
I believe the major failing in Imaginary Friends is Bye’s determination not to make a comedy. When he warned us at the beginning that was the last joke we would hear all evening, it was a worry. Though there were moments of attempted humour peppered throughout, it was all badly executed with the idea that simply saying the name “Nigel Farage” would be absurd enough to elicit laughter from a surprised audience. This was not the case. It may have been a very dark story, but it would have benefited from moments of light, and by tapping too much into the darkness, any potential was sadly squandered.
I always say theatre is subjective, and I would encourage everyone to make up their own mind, even if I have personally disliked a show. There will be some who love this style of show and will adore Imaginary Friends, as some wildly differing reviews will testify. For me, though, it fell completely flat. I would be interested to see another of Bye’s shows in the future as the talent is easy to see within him - it is just a shame that, on this occasion, the content of the show failed to wow me.
Imaginary Friends plays at Soho Theatre until 24th May. Tickets from