Pandemonium
Like all good satire, Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber’s latest venture at the Soho Theatre is both angry and clever. Pandemonium is a Shakespearian style romp through the Boris years with ‘Orbis Rex’, crowned with his distinctive mussed up blond hair and believing in his destiny as King of the World. The legacy of that time was front of mind for me before I headed into town for this, in recovery from a cold so taking two covid tests to make sure I wasn’t going to unintentionally kill someone, and conscious that a cough nowadays has a more unsocial resonance than ever. Alongside Orbis Rex (Paul Chahidi) the play is packed with clever caricatures; ‘Richer Sooner’, a sprite with too short trousers, ‘Less Trust’ who envisions herself as queenie but is felled by the question ‘ but have you costed any of this?’. And then there’s Matt Hemlock, the creature from the swamp, Jacob Rhesus Monkey and Dominant Raab amongst others, all played by the five exce...