Writer and performer: Tom Walker
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If anyone has ever wondered what BBC News would be like if it lost its balance, Jonathan Pie (alter ego of Tom Walker) could provide the answer. Pie is the BBC’s Westminster correspondent and, having worked previously for Russia Today, he knows all about democracy.
Perhaps realising that preaching Socialism to an audience that has paid West End ticket prices may not be too good an idea, Pie begins by promising that his “lecture” will not be a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party and, instead, he makes it a Party Political Broadcast against the Conservative Party (and others). All Prime Ministers since Thatcher are in the firing line, with Rishi Sunk being named the most evil of all for having once worked as a hedge fund manager. There are many villains, but where are the heroes that the show’s title promises?
The evening begins with a so-so 20-minute set from Egyptian-American comedian Maria Shehata. Presumably, her job is to warm up the audience for Pie, but, having done so, she sends us out for a 20-minute interval and cools us down again. Very odd.
Pie’s style is to launch into ferocious, foul-mouthed tirades, pitched at such a level that they cannot be good for his blood pressure. A Socialist who sends his son to a private school and is a member of BUPA, a conservationist who cannot be bothered to re-cycle waste and regards David Attenborough as overrated, we figure out that Pie’s Achilles heel is hypocrisy long before he owns up to it.
Moving at break neck speed, Pie leaves us little time to dwell on the nonsenses or to figure out the other side of his arguments. Corruption, cronyism, privilege, greed, etc are all sitting targets and, when he hits them, his observations are often very funny. His overlong “lecture” only flounders when he asks us to take him seriously.
Pie rants against every political and social convention that comes, apparently randomly, into his head, reserving special venom for British democratic institutions. However, it is all reminiscent of Basil Fawlty beating up his motionless car and maybe this self-confessed hypocrite’s hopes for real change are just pie in the sky
Performance date: 16 April 2024.
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