'I'm with Bupa!' screams Oliver, the Bicycle Man, waiting in A&E after a crashes launches him into a hilariously insecure tirade against how long he's going to have to wait. From the first we recognise him, he's wearing 'an NHS nurse's salary of Decathlon gear' to cycle from his 'Central London flat to my Central London office.'  But he's hurt, he's smashed into a stationary vehicle after drinking himself silly on a group cycle and he wants you (fellow A&E waiting room patient) to know about it. 

Maniura uses drag like a key into Oliver’s masculinity, unlocking a rawness about his life that he himself can only fear and cycle away from. He wanted to be a 'real man' like those lycra-clad men he gawped over 'suckling isotonic gels' and stroking their carbon-fibre bike frames in homoerotic jealousy. Expect hilarious corporate charts about his injury and personal life (a value scan featuring 'mummy,' 'nanny' and 'Les Alpes'). Kathy Maniura echoes and exaggerates perfectly the Bicycle Man: the hand-gestures, the wriggling in the clip-on pedals waiting at a red light, how he lavishes on the FT. Get to know the man behind the Decathlon goggles.

16:45 | 30th Jul - 24th Aug @ Pleasance Courtyard Attic

Photo credit Jonny Woolley, review by Will J. Wood.