Angry Alan review: Sharply amusing monologue shows the bizarre world of meninism

In this monologue from Penelope Skinner, middle-aged Roger is exasperated. He used to have a good job, but now works as “third assistant store manager” at a supermarket, grappling with customer complaints. He’s largely estranged from his son Joe, his girlfriend Courtney has recently begun a campaign to highlight his prejudices, and he’s been wondering if he might have bowel cancer.

But then he stumbles on the promise of salvation — in the shape of Angry Alan, a YouTube sensation who’s a pioneer of the men’s rights movement. Roger is impressed with the statistics Alan marshals as he seeks to prove that society is dominated by women. Soon he’s signing up to go to a conference in Cincinnati where delegates will microscopically examine the oppression of men, and he’s telling a bemused Courtney that he has rediscovered his true self and is intent on changing the world.

The reality is more grimly prosaic, and Skinner has fun exposing the naivety of Roger’s fantasies. Yet if in many ways he proves a preposterous figure — exhilarated to learn that there are female men’s rights activists, otherwise known as “honey badgers” — he’s given an air of amiable reasonableness by Donald Sage Mackay, who captures his mix of frustration, fervour and anguish.

Skinner directs, and Roger’s enthusiastic explanations are interspersed with genuine and bizarre video clips of some of the apostles of so-called “meninism”. But in touching briefly on the movement’s politics and its potential to turn violent, this 65-minute piece draws attention to its own breeziness. It’s an enjoyable and nicely observed character sketch, at times sharply amusing, yet accelerates towards a melodramatic ending that manages to be both abrupt and predictable.

Until March 30 (020 7478 0100, sohotheatre.com)