Scarlet of skin and horny of head, Marcus Brigstocke plays Lucifer in his new show Devil May Care, delivering dispatches from hell and reflections on the changing criteria for damnation. Props to the Radio 4 man for trying something different but, for his sins, it doesn’t quite come off. The character is flimsy, frequently disappearing behind Brigstocke himself. Elsewhere, he is too often a vessel for cliches and snarky observational comedy.
This Lucifer is just a suit and a supercilious voice. “I successfully sued God for a fall in the workplace,” he leers, and there are some promising gags about our host’s biblical background. But mainly the show is an inventory of mild modern sins, some proposed by the crowd. Adults with scooters. People who eat quinoa. Middle-lane motorway drivers. “You pricks!” Satan apostrophises them, and “you joyless wankers!” – as if he has taken standup lessons from Jonathan Pie.
It can feel like comedy perdition, but the standard rises now and then. A routine about Theresa May’s plight is pleasingly baroque, even if Brigstocke’s political material cleaves closely to received wisdom. (Trump is “an outsized cheesy Wotsit,” ho-hum.) The punchline to his Rolf Harris singalong is good – until he keeps talking and overdoes it. Elsewhere, this devil is oddly woke, ever ready with a feminist angle and urging us to “give to charity!” The point may be that, in these hostile times, even Lucifer is moved to compassion. But in practice, it plays as if this underdeveloped character just can’t help speaking in his master’s voice.
• At Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye, 23 November. Then touring until 1 December.
