Pierre Novellie certainly has plenty of back story to draw on. As he recaps in his opening salvo, he is a white South African educated on the Isle of Man. If that does not give this smart satirist a distinctive perspective on global affairs, nothing will.
The theme of See Novellie, Hear Novellie, Speak Novellie is the rise of divisiveness. People are choosing a team and ruthlessly defending it. It is a persuasive concept and, given his biography, it is unsurprising that he is not just referencing Brexit.
His assured routines visit various intriguing tangents, from pointing out that Scooby Doo is essentially a cartoon about financial irregularities to sympathising with Charles Manson’s legal advisers when their client carved a swastika onto his forehead mid-trial.
Many of the ideas here are impressively polished. There is a stand-out riff on the Queen’s Christmas Day Speech, when “Money Nana” appears onscreen like a Bond villain. Some strands do feel slightly forced.
Novellie has apparently met lots of English communists. He clearly frequents different soirées to me. As he reaches his chilling conclusion that divisiveness rarely ends well, the giggles almost dry up. Pierre does not peter out though. Instead he leaves his audience doing some serious thinking.
Until April 6 (020 7478 0100, sohotheatre.com)
