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Kathy Maniura: The Cycling Man

 
Isabella Thompson Review by Isabella Thompson 4 Published: 9 Aug 2025 Pleasance Courtyard Show Dates: 30 Jul 2025-24 Aug 2025

It’s A&E, and Oliver is joining us in the waiting room following a dramatic accident involving a stationary car. Directed by the seasoned clown visionary Cecily Nash, Kathy Maniura is The Cycling Man: problematic, troubled, middle-aged, and riddled with privilege and mummy issues. Smothered in delicious irony, this hour of character comedy brilliantly demonstrates the depth and versatility of drag kinging.

A brilliant, side-splitting parody of the upper-middle class’ stiff upper lip.

The Cycling Man himself is a finely tuned caricature: a posh Oxford graduate, member of the Islington Cycle Club, and self-important consultant who reads The Financial Times in shorts that are VERY padded. He’s obsessed with the 1968 film musical Oliver!, adores his quarter-zip fleeces enough to sing them an inspired ballad, and is utterly clueless about women—particularly his estranged wife, Susan. Combining hilariously accurate observations with quintessential drag whimsy, Maniura has excellently crafted a character with impressive detail.

Using projections and PowerPoints, he tries to chart why Susan left him, and it’s corporate jargon galore. It’s a brilliant, side-splitting parody of the upper-middle class’ stiff upper lip: utterly real and ripe for ridicule. Between GoPro footage, peloton love stories, and thinly veiled machismo, we see a “mummy’s boy” desperate for safety and connection. If there’s a downside to the show, it’s that some of Oliver’s monologuing can over-extend and slow the pace of an otherwise dynamic performance.

Beneath the ridiculousness lies a portrait of male fragility, loneliness, and the strange rituals we cling to when life spins off balance. Maniura’s character work is pitch-perfect, giving this absurd posh-peloton tragicomedy a high-quality finish.

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The Blurb:

Middle-aged and newly single, he's spent the salary of an NHS nurse in Decathlon and he's on the verge of a breakdown. Get to know this absurd and deeply flawed man as he gets to know himself. Goofy drag king show from award-winning character comedian Kathy Maniura, BBC New Comedian shortlisted, 2023 and Sketch Off winner, 2020. Follows her debut show Objectified, which received five-star reviews at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and subsequently toured the UK, gaining four award nominations. 'Charming' (Guardian). 'Stand-out performer... enigmatic' (Scotsman). Directed by Cecily Nash.