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Hunch

Super heroic and emotional gut feelings
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Hunch

Super heroic and emotional gut feelings

Written and performed by Kate Kennedy, Hunch is the story of Una, a tentative young woman who gets a pain in her gut when she has to make decisions. When a gut decision saves her life she is recruited into an organisation of superheroes as 'Hunch', to help the indecisive people of Hum make choices.

Hunch has the scale, humour and emotional impact of a Pixar film. Kennedy's ability to inhabit a vast array of completely distinct characters is awe-inspiring. From our delightfully socially awkward lead and narrator Una, on whom the fate of an entire city rests, to a host of humorous bit parts including a grouchy office worker, her hyper-concerned Dad, and a man who can't decide whether or not to remove one of his jumpers.

The play is set in a world very similar to our own, with the slight whimsical differences played for laughs in a script that's bursting with hilarious quips. In Hum alcohol is known as 'naughty liquids' and animals are referred to by the sounds they make. Beneath the humour is a deeper examination of the desperate feelings of futility when tragic events can't be altered, and of how we make decisions: do we leave them to our head, heart, genitals or hunch (all characters in the play),.

Simple staging and well-measured lighting effects allow Kennedy to be lying in bed, travelling through time or addressing the city with minimal fuss, and neatly avoids an over-use of blackouts. This comic play is testament to the power of a one-person show to create entire worlds.

Assembly Roxy, until 26 Aug (not 13), 5.05pm, £10.50–£12.50 (£9.50–£11.50).

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