“If you’re not laughing, you’re learning,” quips Olga Koch early on in Fight. She is correct in her self-criticism. The St Petersburg-born stand-up’s debut show offers a unique take on life before and after communism.
Koch charts her country’s history via the career of her father Alfred, an academic who almost accidentally became deputy prime minister of post-Glasnost Russia, responsible for privatisation and creating oligarchs. His daughter jokes that if only he’d been better at his job he’d be an oligarch too.
His colourful CV is certainly full of dramatic twists, from game-show host to opponent of Putin. Fight is bookended by his sudden flight in 2014. It is a sinister incident worthy of John Le Carré adding drama to the humour.
The tale is kept interesting by an assured stage presence and sense of mischief, bringing the past into the present with a mix of anecdotes, vodka-soaked home movies and crackly TV adverts. Footage of Gorbachev selling pizzas is positively priceless.
If the narrative sometimes loses focus, Koch neatly knits it back together with a conclusion about the nature of truth, saving just enough time for a smutty musical finale. Intriguing rather than wall-to-wall funny, but you do leave smiling and smarter.
Until January 19 (020 7478 0100, sohotheatre.com)
