Captain Amazing, Soho Theatre

Meet Mark, Britain’s only part-time superhero, juggling family responsibilities and  job at B&Q with defeating super-villains and saving people from burning buildings.

Bruntwood playwriting prize-winner Alistair McDowall - tipped by the Royal Court Theatre's Olivier Award-winning writer Simon Stephens as the most exciting English playwright to emerge in the last five years - has produced a bruising and moving monologue in Captain Amazing. Mark Weinman  plays Mark, an ordinary bloke, or so he believes. He meets a woman, becomes a father, and suddenly - owing to his adoring daughter Emily - finds himself the object of a Marvel Action-style hero-worship. Captain Amazing tells the sublime,  ridiculous and poignant story of the mini daily miracles of the parent-child relationship, and what an ordinary man does when he's charged with saving the world.

McDowall’s script lays bare how all parents strive to be heroes in the eyes of their children, and how even the seemingly invincible aren’t immune to tragedy. This is a one man show, but Weinman slips into a host of colourful extra characters - from Batman to evil billionaires -  delightful ease and gripping pace. 

The play arrives in London after a sell-out Edinburgh run last year, where it was proclaimed by The Telegraph as “ the best one-man show  you’re likely to see at the Fringe ”. It's huge fun in life-affirming form.