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Clever and amusing parody of the ‘woke’ trend but somewhat repetitive towards the end.Summary
Rating
Good
Titania McGrath is a character created by Andrew Doyle as ‘. . . a satirical take on a new kind of moral puritanism.’ She can be found on Twitter with, apparently, several hundred thousand followers, has written a couple of books, and has now moved to the stage played by comedy actress Alice Marshall.
Before she came on we had a half hour stand-up routine from Doyle by way of a warm up. Explaining why he created the Titania character he covered various topics including fascism, Brexit and the ease with which offence is taken over the most mundane things in comedy. He says everyone seems to be an activist now following the rise in use of social media platforms. With a relaxed delivery and the occasional interaction with audience members who caught his eye at various points, this was an enjoyable and funny half hour which went by quickly.
A ten minute drink-replenishing break and Titania McGrath (Alice Marshall) entered to explain that she is holding this ‘workshop’ to re-calibrate our thinking without being infected by ‘facts’. She lectured us on white privilege, homelessness, capitalism and other random subjects constantly contradicting herself in the same sentence. She shared with us her woke icons, several renditions of her slam poetry, and encouraged everyone to take part in a minute of hate, inspired by that great self-help book ‘1984’. The list of alternative Oscar awards was funny, as was the compilation of newspaper headlines identifying racist objects and situations (e.g. rocks, fireworks – go figure). Generally speaking though, after the first twenty minutes or so it was really just more of the same with slightly different words.
Whilst providing a clever and amusing parody of the self-righteous ‘woke’ brigade, the joke wore a bit thin after an hour. It just got repetitive and a tad boring. Personally I would have preferred more of the Andrew Doyle stand-up and less of Titania McGrath, although I may have been in a minority on the night. I am sure die-hard Titania fans will lap up these ‘workshops’ but I doubt they will bring in any new followers.
Written by: Andrew Doyle
Titania McGrath Mxninfesto has completed its current run. You can find Titania McGrath on Twitter here
