Stage: We can be heroes

Jordan Gray: Is It a Bird?
Soho Theatre, London • 16-18.Feb.23

Having won a series of awards, and even performing it live on television, Jordan Gray brings her already-iconic one-woman odyssey Is It a Bird back to the Soho Theatre for three intimate nights of comedy and song. Gray's kinetic physicality and rapid-fire humour are intelligent and consistently hilarious. And her songs are even funnier. With her Essex accent and a mix of riotous chaos and brainy observations, she's instantly reminiscent of Russell Brand, something she acknowledges with a throwaway gag. But her material carries a personal kick that is wonderfully devastating.

The stage is simple: a keyboard and a cardboard red phone box. Gray never stops moving, skittering around the space cracking jokes while playfully interacting with the front rows. The whole performance feels improvised and enjoyably out of control, but it's far too well-shaped for that to be completely true. Even when she's playing the keyboard, she can't sit still, pivoting from side to side or performing an acrobatic pirouette. And she never misses a beat with her astute commentary, which all circles back to her personal life as a trans woman. It's a barrage of outrageously witty one-liners that reveal layer after layer of meaning. 

Yes, everything Gray says and does has a point. The title refers to how people (and one glorious dog) react to her transgendered physicality, and it also reflects how she sees herself as a superhero. Although the one she dives into here is Batman, someone with no supernatural powers whom people accept even if he identifies as a bat. While poking fun at pop culture, she boldly attacks contentious material with a cheeky grin, calling out the audience's hypocrisy in reactions to a joke about Hitler, a song about Jesus or general attitudes towards trans people.

There isn't a wasted line in this hour-long performance; Gray is so sharp and smart that she forces the audience to keep up with her energy levels, pulling us in before lowering the boom. So when she emerges from the phonebooth as a superhero, she is completely naked. This isn't remotely gratuitous, as it's the ultimate provocation in that it really shouldn't be provocative at all. And as she sings her final song, our laughter is choked with an emotional response. "If I'm going to be the joke," she sings, "I might as well be in on it." But Jordan Gray is no joke: she's a brilliant entertainer who deserves to fly very high indeed.

photos by Dylan Woodley • 16.Feb.23