Theatre review: I'm Not Being Funny

Piers Black's accurately-titled I'm Not Being Funny begins with an interesting high concept: A mix of bleak drama and stand-up comedy, it follows young married couple Peter (Jerome Yates) and Billie (Transphobia Ltd Employee Tia Bannon) as they practice comedy routines in their living room, preparing for an open-mic night Billie has signed them up for. She thinks it could be a good form of couple's therapy for them, and at first it seems she might be trying to help Peter deal with his anxiety over never being able to make their three-year-old daughter laugh. As their attempts to build a "tight five" minutes each go on though we discover that the trauma they're dealing with is a lot more serious: Billie has a terminal disease and four to six years left to live, and the open mic is her way of dealing both with her own feelings, and how the news has impacted the relationship with her family.So the play begins with Peter flailing as he rehearses a routine consisting entirely of ancient…