Told By An Idiot’s show opens in a Scottish debating chamber, where a group of dignitaries are discussing a new statue to occupy an empty plinth in Edinburgh. Dolly the sheep and Archie Gemmill receive consideration as Scotland’s greatest contributors to nuclear transfer and football, respectively. But the honour is ultimately accorded to a 17th-century atheist named Thomas Aikenhead, at which point the company launches into a rousing number with the repeated refrain: “Thomas Aikenhead, who the fuck are you?”
It’s a good question, not only because Aikenhead remains obscure, but also because of what he represents. He was the last person in Britain to be hanged for blasphemy, and though he gained notoriety for preferring Muhammad to Jesus and dismissing the Old Testament as “Ezra’s fables”, it is quite possible that the most dangerous thing he did was to intimate that “Man’s imagination, raised by art and industry, could do as much as our blessed Saviour did”.
The show is billed as “a brutal comedy with songs”; in truth, it’s more of a brutal musical with historical skits, as the greater proportion is sung in showstopping arrangements by Iain Johnstone with lyrics from Simon Armitage. Paul Hunter’s production is far from reverent: as a capital crime, blasphemy was technically only punishable at the third offence; here it is analysed, football pundit-style, over the ref’s misuse of the red card.
A composite picture of Aikenhead emerges as a sacrificial lamb for the Enlightenment and a martyr to free speech. Though there’s clearly a link to be made between the slogan “I am Thomas” and “Je suis Charlie”, avoiding the temptation to belabour contemporary parallels turns out to be the show’s single point of restraint. The great irony is that Armitage’s emotive lyrics liken Aikenhead’s execution to Christ’s journey towards Calvary, which Thomas would surely appreciate as the ultimate example of gallows humour.
- At Liverpool Playhouse until 27 February. Box office: 0151-709 4776. Then touring.
