By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 2 December, runs through 13 January 2024 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (without interval)

Meet Orbis Rex, a rotund bundle of self-confidence with a mop of unkempt blond hair, musing whether the UK should Leave or Remain in the EU.

• Read on for reasons including how this intimate venue offers a perhaps too early opportunity to reflect on the possible humour in what was an unremittingly dark situation for so many

Hamlet‘s ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy is riffed on as Orbis muses on an ‘Albion’ full of ‘gloomsters’ as he flip-flops between options and their respective value to this politician.

It’s 2016 yet the style is Shakespearean, occasionally in comic verse, as we quietly fast forward to the new PM’s handling of the 2020 pandemic.

The chorus assumes a variety of roles with familiar names given a little twist as we learn of a pestilence drawing near after originating in a Wuhan batcave.

Iannucci has previously given us Alan Partridge, The Thick Of It and film The Personal History Of David Copperfield and we can’t help but wonder, with former prime minister Boris Johnson about to give evidence to the Covid Inquiry next week, whether this satire is a little too soon to be finding humour in the events of the last few years?

However, although things may take a little while to find their funniest bones we meet characters including the leprachaun-like Riches Sooner who wants to keep the economy going with his Eat Out To Help Out scheme, the ‘eager cheeks’ of Matt Hemlock who is in the throes of teenage-like love and his political rival Less Trust who appears to have been thwarted by the question: ‘Have you costed anything?’

Events become increasingly sillier and more funny with the chorus singing at 1 point: ‘SPADs get drunk as fuck on the gin brought in by forklift truck, Then we smash the place to bits when we’re drunk and off our tits.’

At times it’s almost childish but we found a lot to laugh at in Paul Chahidi’s performance as Orbis Rex not least his description of his blond wig as ‘my lifeforce’.

Soho Theatre is a much smaller venue than you might expect for a show of this calibre and we note the run is predominantly sold out and has been extended but, if you can get a ticket, this just might give you plenty to find humour and inspiration from about a Covid experience which was unremittingly dark for so many.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Soho Theatre Tickets
• Have you been to Soho Theatre before or seen an Armando Iannucci show? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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