300 TO 1 - FREE

BANSHEE LABYRINTH (VENUE 156)

THIS. Is. Sparta – as re-enacted by a 13-year-old boy in his bedroom. Written and performed by Matt Panesh (also known as Monkey Poet), this one-man show imagines a kid recreating the epic battle blockbuster 300, between imagined conversations with the war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. It’s certainly one of the odder additions to the crop of shows commemorating the centenary of the First World War.

It’s also perhaps the most engaged. Referencing popular culture and classical myth, Panesh tackles the macho glorification of violence bound up in the remembrance tradition, undercutting broad comedy with sobering comment on the “old lie” of glory in death.

The Banshee Labyrinth’s cosy basement is the perfect setting for this casually presented piece, and Panesh keeps the audience engaged throughout, occasionally having us create the “suspense music” ourselves to underscore the imagined film. He’s a chameleonic performer, flipping between characters in an instant and conjuring a cast of thousands through nothing but sheer storytelling skill.

The show isn’t without its flaws: satirising the oily homoerotic muscle-fest of 300 through the eyes of a teenager is one thing, but the framing of Owen and Sassoon’s relationship is eye-rollingly adolescent itself.

Until 24 August. Today 12:50pm.