★★★☆☆
When was the last time you watched Have I Got News for You? The BBC’s flagship satirical panel show recently concluded its 65th series and with the semi-recent axing of both The Mash Report and Mock the Week, it’s pretty much the last programme of its ilk left standing.
Ditto: scripted political comedy. It’s been a long time since The Thick of It, and even Britbox’s recent Spitting Image revival has comprehensively failed to recapture its career-destroying heyday.
Where political comedy has thrived, though, is on social media. Rosie Holt, better known as ‘Conservative MP Rosie Holt,’ has shot to national fame with a series of perfectly-calibrated sketches mocking the nodding-dog-style Conservative backbencher. After a sold-out run at the Pleasance Courtyard in 2022, Holt returns to the stage with another solo hour of satirical character comedy.
MP decries kangaroo court that victimised Boris Johnson pic.twitter.com/08mYTFT3IE
— Rosie Holt (@RosieisaHolt) June 15, 2023
The biggest problem with that isn’t Holt’s show itself. She’s an excellent performer, and though the show’s construction sometimes lacks a bit of precision, there’re enough zingers in the hour that her skills as a comedian are hard to deny.
The problem is that, in the realm of social media, which made Holt’s name, it’s hard to make a joke that a hundred people haven’t already workshopped within minutes of a political event. In 2023 there’s a real sense that solidly-written political satire is no longer enough for a stage show written months in advance.
Still, in That’s Politianment! Holt does near-enough everything right. Her three characters (despite two of them sharing a name) are distinct and largely well-observed. Her MP persona, in particular, is so accurate you can easily see why she’s frequently confused for the real deal online, even when she’s painting Rwanda as a great location for a weekend getaway.
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Her stage presence is consistently excellent, even in the face of a slightly muted audience. Each character has their own very funny quirks, from the MP’s habit of repeating the names of the audience members she’s talking to the woke-bashing talk show host with a thesaurus-ful of synonyms for ‘left-wing.’
If That’s Politiainment! isn’t a rousing success, then, it’s hard to blame Rosie Holt. In an age of populism and post-truth, satire might just have died on its arse. Despite a rousing and energetic hour of stand-up, the show isn’t quite enough to revive it.
Rosie Holt: That’s Politainment! Is playing at the Pleasance Courtyard at 20:00 until 27 August. You can view our comprehensive guide to the entire Fringe here.
