“What will linger about ‘Pandemonium’ is the moral outrage, expressed in sometimes captivating verse – and evoked most forcibly here by Dominic Cummings no less, in a dream sequence that conjures the enormity of the mismatch between the nation’s tragedy and the people presiding over it. Not only as a pointed, playful political pantomime, but also as a document of our times, it’s unimpeachable.”
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“ ‘Pandemonium’ is a glowing example of Iannucci’s signature satire, wrought with almost lyrical crudeness. Never has the word ‘spaffed’ so liberally punctuated a playtext, and to such poetic effect...A hilarious night out, although a bit too close to the bone to not leave a sour taste.”
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“...the show – an 80-minute divertissement – joins the tottering pile of theatrical attempts to roast Johnson’s reputation only to encounter the usual problem that an air of bumbling buffoonery is baked into his shtick; yet another caricature feeds into his knack for self-mythologising.”
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"Elegantly profane language can’t disguise undergraduate-level humour and an incoherent mess of a script"
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“ ‘Pandemonium’ is a Covid-era political satire that feels miserably ponderous and out of date, even without the cumbersome references to greats like Milton, Pope, and Shakespeare...’Pandemonium’ feels like a lockdown project, a distraction from the monstrous, horrifying waste of life and resources the past three years have brought.”
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“It’s all beautifully done, but perhaps it really is true that we are living in a time beyond satire. This stage incarnation makes you smile, when the real world makes you want to weep.”
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“The satire is cruel, zany and one-sided...It’s strange to see this when the Covid inquiry is grinding through the minutiae. Ianucci’s case for the prosecution tries too hard to hammer home its points. But you have to admire its Hogarthian venom.”
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“This has the silliness, but there’s a problem with the satire. You do wonder whether the events of the last few years - global pandemic meets power-fixated goons, with hilarious consequences etc - are too absurd to satirise...And besides all that, it doesn’t go far enough. Too much of the sixth-form sketch show about it. Yes they all end up writhing in the fires of hell, but somehow it’s not satisfying to see them meet their fates in an imaginary underworld.”
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