Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Do we really need this unsubtle and irrelevant play about Covid?

Plus: sit back and enjoy the violence, the madness and the hilarity of Pinter's The Homecoming

Amalia Vitale, Faye Castelow, Paul Chahidi, Debra Gillett and Natasha Jayetileke in Pandemonium (Marc Brenner/Soho Theatre) 
issue 06 January 2024

Pandemonium is a new satire about the Covid nightmare that uses the quaint style of the Elizabethan masque. Armando Iannucci’s play opens with Paul Chahidi as Shakespeare introducing a troupe of players who all speak in rhyming couplets. A golden wig descends like a signal from on high and Shakespeare transforms himself into the ‘World King’ or ‘Orbis Rex’.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in