Ian Waller enjoys an evening of ranting profanities and politics bashing
You know what you’re going to get from an evening of Jonathan Pie and blimey does he deliver! Last night at The Forum Bath, the BBC’s senior deputy political correspondent delivered a 70 minute febrile tirade of Tory and establishment bashing that left the audience breathless, laughing and loving it!
Jonathan Pie is, of course, the creation of comedian Tom Walker and a character made famous for his off-air, end of reports to camera attacks on the ineptitudes and conniving consequences of Whitehall life. His regular YouTube attacks on all things political are masterclasses in blunt force satire saturated with a level of bile and hatred that offers absolutely no mercy to any politician of any colour – but particularly the Conservative party.
Still, would these short blasts of on-line vitriol work as a longer, live production touring venues across the country? Well, yes they do. And the result is so clever, so incisive and quite seriously uncomfortable too.
Of course the main targets of the evening are clearly the inhabits and cohorts of No 10 over the last 14 years and more, with particular hatred for the likes of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. However, the sharpish daggers and, indeed, heaviest clubs, are left for the present Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, with his move from hedge fund manager to ruling the country used as an illustration of where everything has gone so very horribly wrong.
Throughout this is prime Pie delivered at supersonic speed with the early promise of balanced reporting going way out of the window early in the evening. And then there’s the change of direction with questions along the lines of, OK, they’re a useless, horrible, harmful bunch but what did you – the audience – do to stop them, what are you doing now and basically, we’re all guilty here people.
As far as party political campaigning goes, this was a long way from subtle and as biased as can be, with only the briefest of mentions of Tony Blair and Keir Starmer. However, as an evening of fantastic character led comedy, it was great to behold.
For details of upcoming shows at The Forum Bath, go to www.bathforum.co.uk