Theatre review: Daniel Piper's Day Off

Daniel Piper’s Day Off

JJJ

“Alright!!!” A man in a club, clutching a WKD, is lurching towards me like it’s 1997. The man is Daniel Piper, this is his one-man show, and he’s about to live the dream and have a day off. The problem is that he can’t quite commit to this, or even decide what it really means in practice. Exercise? Travelling? Going on the London Eye?

Standing in Daniel’s way is the guilt he feels at leaving his colleagues to manage their own Twitter account and update the “content calendar”. As one-time social media manager of the Underbelly, he clearly knows the petty foibles of office technophobes – and this comes across in the sharply observed script, which is full of recurring jokes.

A likeable performer, Daniel has a down-to-earth charm but also a chaotic kind of energy and direct-to-audience style of address that often feel more suited to a stand-up routine. The jokes are sharper than the storytelling, but the pressure we in the West face to find and follow “our dreams”, paired with the hold that work is increasingly taking of our home lives, touch on pertinent themes that have plenty of scope to be explored further.

Sally Stott

Until 27 August. Today 4pm.