Narc. Magazine Online
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Ben Lowes-Smith enjoys a triptych of a show, oscillating between earnestness and irony and perhaps Stewart Lee’s defining artistic statement
Stewart Lee’s new show sees him at something of an existential crossroads. In the landscape of the degradation of Western democracy and a collective slide to populism and worse – what purpose does comedy serve, and to what extent has it altered our relationships with empathy and cruelty? This may be the central question posed by Lee tonight, but such mercury-heavy subject matter doesn’t prevent the show from being one of Lee’s silliest, where moments of physical comedy and intentional technical farce generate some of the most ecstatic responses.
A triptych of a show, Lee oscillates between earnestness and irony expertly, his crosshairs precise and righteous from start to finish, and it must be said that the gag rate here is extraordinary – pleasant respite for those maybe expecting a twenty minute deconstruction of a joke – something conspicuously absent tonight. Lee’s ire rests at the door of the morally vacuous nature of a lot of comedy- initially addressed earnestly through a retelling of an interaction with a supermodel at a dinner table, and then contorting into the monstrous Man-Wulf; a free-speech lovin’, liberal-hatin’, sandwich-requestin’ werewolf. It’s a skewering satire of the level of cruelty that has become commonplace in comedy – while retaining a sense of silliness and lightness.
It also allows Lee to ask the left questions – to what extent can it adopt the strategies of the populists to gain ground on cultural consciousness, or whether that is a lost cause in itself. Lee ends the night on a bittersweet note- lamenting his judgement in an anecdote told in the first half in a Bob Dylan parody- but ultimately the show has flashes of hope, poetry, and unlike many of his other shows- a remarkably high and rapid gag rate. It may be one of his best shows – if not his defining artistic statement.
