*****
Honed by the Wakefield Labour Club against a background of the miners strike, it’s no wonder that Mark Thomas packs a punch.
Comedian, anarchist, drama student and political rabble-rouser, Mark has made his reputation fighting for civil liberties against anyone generally, but Conservatives, picket-crossers and MacDonalds in particular.
Normally, he’s a one-man band but in his new show The Red Shed he invokes Yorkshire colleagues depicted by masks worn by kindly Old Market bar staff.
This allows the occasional breathing space in his torrent of invective against the above as well as hilarious impersonations of union leaders, old miners and octogenarian teachers with rebellion in memory.
It’s a theatrical tour de force of astounding articulation. No wonder he isn’t impressed by Owen Jones’s feat of speaking for 50 minutes without notes.
Less obviously funny than Thomas’s supermarket antics or efforts to encourage loitering, The Red Shed is more overtly political and none the worse for it.
His efforts to trace the reality of an anecdote becomes symbolic. Does truth matter in a story? The audience were instructed to mumble rhubarb and eh bah gum before a rousing rendition of The Red Flag. Hove shuddered.
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