Edinburgh Fringe 2026
I am Johnny
Tessa Parr
Genre: Solo Performance, Theatre
Venue: Summerhall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
From a manly man, who’s all man … man … Johnny is a 30-something spoken word poet. His views on life are very much masculine, but sensitive as his medium of poetry tries to be sensitive – he at least knows what a cornichon is. Having just returned from the gym he entertains us not just to his poetry but also to his fixation on all things vinegary. By the end we have a button badge to collect and memories to savour whilst Johnny trips off into his personal manosphere.
Review
Queer theatre performer Tessa Parr has created a character which has all of the intricacies of a sledgehammer, portraying male traits with broad brushstrokes, providing a degree of discomfort because, unfortunately, many of them are very recognisable.
Parr is an engaging performer who has an assured ability to take you with them. With very few props on stage and a very delicate way of interacting with the audience, Parr manages to keep us on onside mainly until the end.
This is well imagined. For me, the idea runs out of steam leaving the writing feeling repetitive. We begin to feel some repetition without the framework of a destination that allows it to move from the initial physicality into something more consequential.
Parr, however, is superb. They have the ability of capturing the essence of the physical nature of a man, the walk, the leer, the look, the slicked back black hair, the way of sitting, the demand for respect that comes from having a pose and then picking up the chair and wanting to be seen picking up that chair. It reminded me of a young man that I used to know who at some point did parkour to a very basic level. They then spent most of their time trying to impress everybody with parkour that simply didn’t work. He still flicked his head and stood in a pose to be admired but never was.
Audience interaction is very strong. The day that I saw it the whole thing to do with dextrose was fantastic. The poetry was the right mixture of terrible and illuminating. Having to be wealthy to be mentally healthy will stick with me forever
I also enjoyed the whole cornichons versus pickles debate as well, though at times I felt that it lost itself in its own cleverness.
Perhaps the whole point was to make us curious of this character, but I wanted to see more than the stereotype.
I am Johnny is effective for most of the time with clever observations and strong characterisation which hints at the possibility of more. I wanted to scream give me more because I thought there was plenty of ability onstage to give it.
