Bridget Christie: Mortal ★★★★★

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Written by Susan Singfield in Bouquets & Brickbats on August 11th, 2016

Bridget Christie’s 2016 Edinburgh Show, Mortal, is essentially a rallying cry – yes, it’s funny and yes, she’s still shows she’s one of the best comedians of the modern age, but this is really a post-Brexit call to arms. “We risk the total collapse of social cohesion in this country,” she says – and we need to do something about it. We can’t rely on our politicians; they’ve proven themselves to be corrupt and incompetent. But we are not powerless, and we can, for example, stand up and object when we see acts of racism (which have increased five-fold since the ‘leave’ side won – and no, of course not every leave voter is racist but, by God, those who are certainly feel empowered).

She’s angry – that much is clear. So angry about the reckless way that David Cameron has gambled with the nation’s future, that she has abandoned her planned show about mortality and written this new one in response to the Brexit debacle. It’s too important – too compelling a subject for her to ignore.

Christie has an energy that somehow makes her apoplectic rants endearing; she physicalises her fury like an impotent toddler, which aptly symbolises the way many of us feel in the wake of the EU referendum. An extended routine lambasting Michael Gove’s “people in this country have had enough of experts” nonsense is both hilarious and devastating, and her take-down of the Daily Mail is particularly acute.

Hurrah, then for Bridget, and commiserations to us all. We’re totally fucked. But at least she makes us laugh while she articulates the shit we’re in.

Written by Susan Singfield in Bouquets & Brickbats on 11th August 2016.
Filed Under: Because You Demanded It, Review

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