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There is a particular kind of bravery in solo performance, the kind that requires a performer to hold a room with nothing but wit, a body, and an idea. Issy Knowles has all three in abundance. Body Count, her one-woman show currently enjoying an encore run at SoHo Playhouse as part of the International Fringe Encore Series, is both genuinely funny and quietly devastating, sometimes in the same breath.
The premise is audacious: Pollie, an OnlyFans creator, is mid-livestream, mid-marathon, attempting to sleep with 1,000 subscribers in a single session in New York City. The play unfolds in real time within that event, which gives Knowles a pressure-cooker framework from which to unspool something far more intimate. We move backwards and sideways through Pollie's life: a confusing Catholic upbringing, a failed corporate consulting career, the seductive pull of quick money and quicker validation.
What makes Body Count more than a provocation is its empathy. Knowles is a skilled physical comedian. Her impressions of the parade of subscribers who show up to participate are sharply observed and wickedly timed, but she never lets the laughs entirely obscure the loneliness underneath. Pollie can switch from overhyped, performative sexuality to quiet, hollow resignation in a heartbeat. That tonal whiplash is deliberate and effective, and it's where the play earns its keep.
The central question Knowles poses, whether it is ever truly possible to sever your body from your heart, is not a new one. But she arrives at it through a contemporary and culturally specific lens, engaging directly with the media frenzy around content creators who have attempted these stunts and the fractious debate they've sparked among feminists, moralists, and the endlessly scrolling internet alike. The play doesn't tell you what to think. It does something more uncomfortable: it makes you feel what Pollie feels, even as you're laughing at the absurdity of her situation.
If the piece occasionally strains under the weight of everything it wants to say, it never loses its footing for long. Knowles is a commanding, charismatic presence, and her instincts as a performer consistently outpace any structural wobble.
Body Count is inventive, provocative, and sharper than its premise suggests. Don't let the title fool you. This one's about the cost, and Knowles makes sure you feel every cent.
My Rating: 4/5
WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY Issy Knowles
DIRECTED BY Alice Wordsworth
LIGHTING & SOUND DESIGN BY Sam Levy
PRODUCED BY Julia Salkin
