Isy Suttie @ Norwich Playhouse

A woman navigating her 20s as she frantically searches for The One.  It’s not exactly seminal stuff – we watch it in romcoms, read about it in chick lit, and some of us *cough* are currently living it. However, Isy Suttie’s show at The Playhouse last night needed no novelty, it was endearing and sparkling enough to engage otherwise.

Isy’s had a successful 2015. She’s finished filming the final series of hit sitcom Peep Show, penned newspaper articles, performed on radio and completed a her debut book. Now (as the litmus test for ultimate success) she’s performing in Norwich. She’s come to the Playhouse as part of her stand-up comedy tour – The Actual One. It’s not long before Isy wins us over - she’s excited to be back as she, in fact, used to live here (on Dover Street, with a lady called Jane, “does anybody know her?”).  For the next hour, there are no uncomfortable silences and no pensive giggles. Isy has us belly laughing at tales of love won and lost, including crafting a giant papier-mache penguin called Roy for a (now) ex. There’s songs too - Isy peppers them between anecdotes and they go down well, a favourite being her rendition of a Slovenian housemate’s ditty We All Die Alone. Both stories and songs delight as they’re idiosyncratically Isy, bar the number about city friends moving to the countryside, which veered into overdone hipster-bating.