REVIEW: Marcus Is Alive, Circle & Star

Marcus Freed could be forgiven for having a screw loose. Getting knocked down in LA where he lives by a hit-and-run driver on the way to a Shabbat dinner and ending up with a brain haemorrhage requiring two surgeries is enough to send anyone slightly crazy.

Indeed Marcus is so focussed on the accident, subsequent recovery and his hunt to find the man who hit him that he has written an entire show about it.

Marcus Is Alive at the new Circle & Star theatre in Hampstead starts with a phone call from Freed’s friend to his mum, breaking the news that her son has been in an accident. “But the good news is: Marcus is alive.”

And it’s this positive attitude that has got Marcus through many of life’s twists and turns, including a string of failed relationships and rejected marriage proposals.

A natural comedian, the rabbi and actor dives easily into the voices of others in his one-man-show, including the aforementioned girlfriends, the police officer who worked on his case, a psychic healer, his Jewish surgeon and even his mum.

The biggest tragedy of all that Freed was living in the US but was uninsured, which meant that the medical bills were in danger of causing more trauma than the brain injury. His only solution was to find the culprit and claim off his insurance. This goal consumed Marcus’s life with a somewhat amateur, faintly ridiculous investigation that results in a hilarious romp through his long search to find the driver via private investigators, psychics and more.

In the end it was a crowdfunder that raised the funds and left Marcus feeling that the whole thing was a blessing.

And the loose screw – this was in fact two fallen screws from his surgery, which caused a bump at the side of his head, proving to his friends that he did indeed have “a screw loose”. However these same friends started a crowdfunder to pay off Marcus’s medical bills, making him feel that the whole experience was blessing,

In summing up this “beautifully written, beautifully performed” (Ben Winston) show, Marcus says: “What if it didn’t happen to me – it happened for me?” A great way to look at life.

Marcus Is Alive is at Circle & Star theatre on 31 May. Buy tickets here