Admirably savage: Kevin Brennan reviews 'Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical'
Tory grandees (left to right): Matt Hancock, Sajid Javid, Suella Braverman, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Dominic Raab and Michael Gove| Image courtesy of Mark Senior
3 min read
With ingenious plotting and brilliant puppetry, Spitting Image The Musical’s approach to humour is both caustic and suitably silly
Like an 18th-century satirical cartoon by James Gillray or William Hogarth come to life, Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical takes aim at royals, politicians and celebrities with an admirably savage coarseness.
Writers Al Murray, Matt Forde and Sean Foley have the tricky task of satirising British public life at a time when it is far beyond satire. They also must contend with the fact that many of their main characters are likely to be out of a job sooner than you can say, “Liz Truss was prime minister”. (No – really – she was!)
The fact that they succeed is down to ingenious plotting, a take-no-prisoners approach to the jokes, and brilliant puppetry by the 15 grey-clad shadows who manipulate the famous puppets. Old favourites like Margaret Thatcher, John Major and the late Queen still appear, but they are joined by new caricatures such as Rishi Sunak in his prep school uniform, eco-warrior Greta Thunberg, a tiny Tom Cruise, and Suella Braverman portrayed like The Exorcist’s head-spinning Regan MacNeil on a psychotropic substance.
It’s not just the Tory government that is targeted; Matt Forde’s superb voicing of Labour leader Keir Starmer is a hilarious highlight, and a shouty Nicola Sturgeon is a running gag throughout.
Go see it unless you can’t laugh at yourself or are easily offended
So there’s something for supporters of all parties to enjoy, but inevitably it is the government of the day that gets the full monty of exposure to caustic humour from the writers.
The use of puppets on stage is not new and has spread in London’s West End in recent years with productions such as War Horse and Life of Pi. These shows have undoubtedly helped to pave the way for this spectacle.
It is a superbly produced and staged live version of Spitting Image as a full-blown West End musical, although there’s no original music here but rather a jukebox of classic hits with comic lyrics.
Satire is difficult in an era when it has become taboo to cause offence, because there can be no effective satire without offence being caused. The important thing is that the targets should be those with power, wealth and influence, and that the message should be on the side of those who lack power. It’s also got to be funny. And unless you’re a miserable moralist, it is.
Ultimately the show’s plot about trying to save the fabric of the nation, embodied in a ragged pair of King Charles’s Y-fronts, hits home. Where has our sense of fairness, instinct for compassion, and love of the absurd gone in a worldwide era of populist ideocracy? At least in Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical we see that it’s still possible in Britain to publicly rip in to the rich and powerful with a coruscating concatenation of satirical savagery and suitable silliness.
Go see it unless you can’t laugh at yourself or are easily offended – in which case consider this review your trigger warning!
Kevin Brennan is Labour MP for Cardiff West
Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical
Written by: Al Murray, Matt Forde & Sean Foley
Venue: The Phoenix Theatre, London WC2 – until 26 August 2023
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