Shenoah Allen: Bloodlust Summertime review – guns and slaughter as ‘the devil’s son’ strives to know himself
#Shenoah Allen #Pajama Men #Bloodlust Summertime #Soho Theatre #London #Comedy review #Gun violence #Trauma #Self‑examination #Improvisation #Mime #Kim Noble #Personal demons
📌 Key Takeaways
- Co‑founder of The Pajama Men, Shenoah Allen, staged *Bloodlust Summertime* at Soho Theatre, London.
- The show is a comedic examination of Allen’s traumatic upbringing in New Mexico, featuring guns, violence, and family history.
- Allen uses a collage of anecdotes and exaggerated voices to reveal personal demons and search for their origin.
- The narrative structure feels loose and disjointed, suggesting the performance is still a work in progress.
- Kim Noble’s influence is evident in the more violent moments, with an increasing number of gunshots and surreal imagery.
- Technical glitches were noted but managed smoothly, indicating production refinement is needed.
📖 Full Retelling
Shenoah Allen, one half of the influential comedy duo The Pajama Men, performed his one‑man show *Bloodlust Summertime* at Soho Theatre in London. The review highlights how Allen leverages personal trauma from his high‑octane upbringing in New Mexico to create a comedic exploration of violence, identity and self‑understanding. Allen confronts his past—gun‑filled memories, family tragedies and a search for the source of his inner dread—while using humor to make the experience relatable. The show, presented during the current season of Soho Theatre, seeks to shed light on how trauma can be processed through creative expression.
🏷️ Themes
Personal trauma, Comedy as coping, Identity and self‑discovery, Violence and its cultural portrayal, Therapeutic storytelling, Improvisational performance
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Review Shenoah Allen: Bloodlust Summertime review – guns and slaughter as ‘the devil’s son’ strives to know himself Soho theatre, London Allen, one half of the influential Pajama Men comedy duo, mines his personal trauma for a slightly undercooked show about his high-octane upbringing in New Mexico S henoah Allen swallows the characters that surround him. They stretch out in his face and spill out of his mouth. He’s a magnet for oddity, imitating the peculiarities of the people he’s grown up with: his grandmother’s lipstick eyebrows; his big-hearted uncle’s old-lady arm candy. In this meandering collection of anecdotes from the comedian’s high-octane upbringing in New Mexico, Allen – best known as one half of the influential comedy duo the Pajama Men, kings of mime and improv – browses through his dressing-up box of voices, trying them on for size. He’s done this since he was a kid, he tells us, to help him get through “the tetchy bits” of life. Of which his has been extremely full. Flashes of mime remind us of the potential of his malleable features, only sparsely used. Instead, Bloodlust Summertime, created with feral comedian Kim Noble, is a haphazard quest for the “unnamed dread” Allen’s therapist has lumped on him. Could it be from the accidental killing in his family? Or the very deliberate murders he has witnessed the immediate aftermath of? Perhaps it was the time he was told his dad was the devil and had his whole life ripped away. Allen breezes through the many strange darknesses he’s encountered, including more guns than one man should ever see, but he’s adept at plucking the funny from the foul. Though the structure of the show feels loose, there’s no shortage of wild experiences to exorcise. Noble’s influence is felt most keenly further in, as flesh boils, fingers are severed and the gunshot count increases. The stories get darker, but they remain discreet, lacking a coherent trajectory to this cluster of personal demons. A little tech trouble is naviga...
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