Award-winning one-person comedy Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen will be taking the final slot in Studio Theatre’s 2025/26 season lineup, produced by Francesca Moody Productions. This “razor sharp” (The Scotsman) show was the breakout success of the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival subsequently enjoyed a critically acclaimed London run.
After years of swiping, a permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up finally meets Mr. Right – and then does everything wrong. Strap in for a delightfully dark journey through self-awareness and self-sabotage as he decides whether love is worth the price of a killer punchline. This darkly comedic one-man show delves into the anxieties of modern life with razor-sharp wit, tackling everything from the fear of intimacy to the terror of vulnerability.
Feeling Afraid… will make its DC debut in June of 2026, coinciding with annual Pride Month celebrations; Studio anticipates that the raunchy, no-holds-barred comedy will be a hit with audiences enjoying Pride festivities on 14th Street.
It should be no surprise that the wickedly funny show is from Francesca Moody Productions, best known for producing Olivier Award-winning Baby Reindeer and the international smash hit Fleabag. Feeling Afraid…is penned by Marcelo Dos Santos, who recently won the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for his 2024 play Backstairs Billy, and directed by Olivier Award winner Matthew Xia.
“I have been trying to bring Feeling Afraid… to DC since I first saw it in Edinburgh in 2022,” says Studio Artistic Director David Muse. “It walks the line between stand-up and play, giving us all the pleasures of punchline after punchline while building a surprisingly tender story about a man navigating his self-destructive instincts.”
About Studio Theatre
Studio Theatre is a longstanding Washington cultural institution dedicated to the production of contemporary theater. Over more than 40 years and 350 productions, the theater has grown from a company that produced in a single rented theater to one that owns a multi-venue complex stretching half a city block, but has stayed committed to its core distinguishing characteristics: deliberately intimate spaces; excellence in acting and design; and seasons that feature many of the most significant playwrights of our time. Studio is a values-focused organization that pursues artistry and inclusion, and brings characteristic thoughtfulness and daring to its efforts, onstage and off. The theater serves nearly 75,000 people each year, including more than 1,000 youth and young adults through community engagement initiatives. Founded in 1978, the quality of Studio’s work has been recognized by sustained community support, as well as 78 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in professional theater.
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Studio Theatre announces 2025/26 season (news story, May 8, 2025)