Product: World Remix
What Would Judas Do?
Bush Theatre, London
**

These two theatrical pieces, presented as a double bill of atheistic debunking of the religious influence, seem to unite the audience in both appreciation and confusion. Granted, there is a fair oiling of the wheels through the power of laughter in both productions, but a leap of faith is required to believe there is anything more going on than some entertaining, ostentatious self-congratulation from two artists still riding the now levelling wave of 90s success.

Mark Ravenhill (Shopping and Fucking) acts, writes and directs Product: World Remix, the more impressive of the two pieces on display tonight, mainly because of his own performance. Ravenhill, one senses, would not be versatile enough to play parts written by someone else, but acting his own words under his own direction, he compels, cutting a striking figure as a film executive selling his latest script, concerning a young metropolitan businesswoman who becomes involved with an Al-Qaeda cell member, with hilarious/tragic consequences. Olivia, played by Jo Lobban, sits (and occasionally stands and walks away, only to be coaxed back by Ravenhill's character) and reacts subtly and convincingly to the suggestions, her indignity evoked by a frozen expression, a frown, or the lighting of a cigarette.

As the story unfolds, we are gripped and tickled by Ravenhill's histrionics, but one senses the serious message being lost in the comedy. "There are just lonely people", Ravenhill's James contends at one point; this is what we are perhaps supposed to take on board, but this seems to overlook the fact that the faith that drives the two characters in the fictional film script is driving people around the world to do the same thing. We could sit back and laugh at the absurdity of it all with Ravenhill if it weren't being played out with regularity in much less amusing ways. "At least I've told you", James half-entreats, half-castigates Olivia as she leaves his office, revolted by the exploitative side of his proposal, but we sense that Ravenhill hasn't really told us all that much, just decided to wear his chosen theme as tightly as possible, and covered in sequins.

After the interval between the two shows, the audience waits quietly for the arrival of the next entertainer, while a noose hangs ominously from the ceiling above the stage. This creates an atmosphere of dramatic tension that is, unfortunately, dissipated as soon as Stewart Lee appears, dressed like a postgraduate student off to a demonstration in woollen hat, scarf and socialist bovver boots. He doesn’t help himself: "There is no excitement ahead" he warns us, and this is largely correct. Lee is a much more engaging character in person than he was on television, and he seems to leaven his live act with more moments of comedy, rather than the tedious, obstinately prolonged examination of his own ideas that had people reaching for the remote control during his brief-ish appearance on television with then-partner, Richard Herring, several years ago; however, there are moments when the show meanders pointlessly and you sense the audience's attention wandering.

The trouble with Lee is that he wants to offer us a thought-provoking monologue/diatribe, but at the same time is pulled towards the instant gratification of stand-up comedy. One senses he would have been better off keeping the two separate, as the attempt to mix them highlights the deficiencies in each. What makes this more of a shame is that Lee is genuinely good as a traditional stand-up comic; his repartee with the audience constitutes the most entertaining aspect of the performance, but sits uneasily with the rambling anti-religion monologue that is his main theme. It also gives him the opportunity to jump in and out of character too often, spoiling the dramatic effect of his being “Judas” and further dissipating the tension.

His basic contention, that Judas saw Jesus as his political leader and viewed his actions as part of a collaboration with Jesus against authority that was ultimately unsuccessful, and that - symbolized by the noose - all that remains after life is death, so what we do during life should be much more constructive and focused, holds some water. However, picking up on absurd details from the biblical texts he has memorized, tests the audience on, and shouts from time to time, is a cheap way of scoring laughs and intellectual brownie points, and the monologue tapers off in unspectacular fashion, leaving us with the impression, emphasized by his appearance, of a student who has handed in a rambling, poorly structured essay with no real focus or conclusion, after spending too long in the union bar discussing the influence of Dostoevsky on the lyrics of Mark E. Smith, and is desperately trying to propitiate his assessors with jokes and the snacks he hands round (Bread and wine? Cashew nuts??). Indeed, there is a sense that Lee asks his audience to place more faith in his views and opinions, the modern comedian as savant debunking messiah, than can be afforded by the evidence he gives us. All in all, an unsatisfying evening's theatre.

by Tom Scruton