Herb Sits Alone ★★★★

What happens inside our heads when we have an existential crisis? Are our thoughts merely goldfish swimming round and round inside a bowl, never reaching a conclusion or an end? Are we the goldfish? Why are we here? What does it all really mean? Herb Sits Alone explores these big questions whilst balancing the darkness of existentialism with the lightness of comedy. Originally performed over Zoom, this piece of absurdist theatre by The Raymondos is a hilarious musing on life that is not to be missed.

The show introduces us to Herb, who is sitting alone slowly falling into an existential crisis. Inside that slowly forming crisis we are introduced to Dil, another fish in this bowl of thought, who tries to help Herb understand the meaning of life and everything around it. At certain points these two are interrupted by Set, a seemingly all-knowing character with none of the answers. As Herb and Dil try to navigate their way through the murky waters of what it means to be alive they slowly discover just how easy it is to keep swimming in circles, never quite reaching an end. 

The show is vaguely reminiscent of Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett, only in this story the question is more about life than death. Herb Sits Alone beautifully encapsulates the madness that comes with questioning life itself and the endless cycle that such thoughts can throw us into until we accept that we might just never know. This combination of comedy and profound thought held back the despair that often comes with existentialism and allowed the audience to laugh at the absurdity of life.

Review by Erin Green