Chris Cantrill is one half of the delightfully mad sketch duo The Delightful Sausage alongside Amy Gledhill, who have rather set up camp in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, The Delightful Sausage having been nominated for best show in 2019 and 2022, and then Gledhill winning best show in 2024. Now Cantrill – also previously nominated in 2024 – completes the set by winning with his solo show, Rewilding. And deservedly so.
Cantrill insists Rewinding is “not a political show” – although there’s some side eye to the audience to let us know what he thinks about one or two things without spelling it out.
The smiley, self-deprecating comedian – part of the writing team of the successful Saturday Night Live UK, which he’s marvellously gossipy about – tells us about his life in a small Northumbrian village. It’s a shaggy dog story, and one filled with silliness as he describes the characters he lives among.
There’s Doreen, who has lived in the village for ever, his pal Jose Miguel, another blow-in like Cantrill, and the neighbours that Cantrill’s wife insists they befriend, much to his consternation.
At first it seems a bucolic location - although Cantrill wryly points out: “It’s a working-class community… by which I mean that a staggering amount of cocaine is inhaled by the local lads” – but then we get into a disturbing tale.
A shocking event occurs in the village – and what Cantrill then describes may or may not have happened, and you may even see the payoff before he delivers it. But no matter as it's an enjoyable ride.
Cantrill is a hugely engaging stage presence and, while there are hints at loneliness and isolation, Rewilding is a relentlessly feelgood hour.
Irish comic Marty Gleeson won the best newcomer award for her show Dog Ear.
