PLAY REVIEW: lenny. ★★★★

lenny., written and performed by Alfie Webster, is a show that quietly creeps under your skin. Part of its power comes from its honesty: few plays capture the peculiar ache of being almost 30, queer, uncertain, and still waiting for life to “start.” Webster plays lenny as a big physical presence in a small self‑image; he looms, but inside he feels smaller than he wants to be, and that tension is what drives the show.

With Mima Houghton set and Gabriel Finn’s lighting beautifully realised, the white cube with a recessed rectangle perfectly evokes the cinema‑projection room where lenny both works and hides; dreaming, escaping, questioning, whilst Raffaela Pancucci’s sound gives texture. there are moments of club throb, when boundaries blur, and moments of stillness that remind you how loud silence can be.

Webster’s comic timing is often delightful, even absurd, and there are scenes that genuinely made me laugh aloud. But this is not just comedy. There are darker turns, emotional edges sharpened by lenny’s inner critic, manifested in dreams, in fantasies, talking bananas, in moments when things fall apart. The play doesn’t shy away from how painful self‑doubt and loneliness can be. Yet, it also doesn’t wallow. There’s a sense of growth, of yearning, of reaching, for connection, for acceptance, for identity.

If you go expecting a polished romcom you’ll be surprised. lenny. is richer, rougher round the edges, more uncomfortable in the right ways, and all the more rewarding for it. It’s a show that stays with you, and reminds you how many of us are just trying to step out of the wings and into our own stories.

Runs at Omnibus Theatre until 4 October. Highly recommend.