Theatre: ApoCALYPSO Now or From P45 to AK47 - Tricycle

Doom-laden predictions on climate change, macabre stories of CIA-backed coups, the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, 1970s porn, ‘gay-lord tennis’ and Bob Dylan satirically transposed onto a ukulele. And Bjork.
These are some of the moments in Robert Newman’s show. The fact that he can string them all together in a way that is erudite, whimsical, and gut-wrenchingly funny is testimony to the genius of this comic maverick.
I’m not sure where other comedians collect and try out their material, (the pub I would guess), anyway, Newman tucked himself away in the British Library for this show and, well, it shows.
There was the same well-read feel to his earlier piece From Caliban to the Taliban, at the Soho a couple of years back. Older fans will be pleased to know there are still echoes of the stoner humour which fuelled the much earlier Independence Day, and the quirky tangents lighten the load here in what is, by most comic standards, pretty heavy stuff.
But it’s nothing that his timing and sense of theatricality cannot handle. And you’ve got to admire a man prepared to squeeze laughs from International Monetary Fund structural adjustments.
Newman comes across as a man seriously committed to his material. There were moments when he discarded his comedic persona completely and shot from the hip on issues such as carbon rationing, (one tonne per year, per person according to him), and the possibility of clean-burning zinc air fuel cells.
And if his use of the expression ‘climate criminal’ makes you feel guilty, there’s an ‘Earthly sins confessional booth’ by the entrance to the auditorium.
It’s sizeable, and he brought it with him. Now that’s commitment.
020 7328 1000
Until May 21