Oh, God. Yes, God. He’s such an easy target.
And topical, obviously.
He’s pretty central to Eddie Izzard’s much-toured show Stripped, which uses the modest concepts of evolution and civilisation as hooks from which to hang squirming multicoloured neuroworms that burrow through your brain, seeding itchy little ideaeggs deep into the tissue. Jazz chickens. Speeding raptors. Ninja sheep. These were images as unforgettable and original as bees or jam or cake-or-death. This was the Definite Article Eddie of the pre-Sexie days, and it was wonderful to have him back.
His divine theme seemed particularly apt in the hanger-like vastness of the O2; Eddie strode the stage like a scruffy-haired kid in coattails, dwarfed by the echoing atmosphere. His God snorted coke; fed badgers crème brûlée; begat an alphabet of Sons (Besus, Tesus, Mesus); and, above all, simply failed to show up. He failed to show up for Hitler. He failed to show up when we landed on the moon. He was the lamest sort of absentee Father, and this was a hilarious up-yours from a Gloriously errant child.
He also failed to show up for the performance of ENO’s Messiah I attended the following night, and if He can resist such a lush, spinetingling lovesong, He’s not worthy of the name. Deborah Warner’s production has taken controversial risks, using modern dress, dramatic staging, video and dance to bring a fresh perspective to the hallowed oratorio, but I found the work easily strong enough to absorb and accommodate the playful layers. In previous years I’ve stuck to The Sixteen at the Sheldonian and nothing can beat them for rich, ancient, puddingy goodness, but some touches – the micro Nativity play full of precocious stars; the moving Man of Sorrows sung with total sincerity by Catherine Wyn-Rogers on a sacrificial wasteland of black cloth; the golden tree of renewal – were welcome sweetspots.
And yes, I stood up during the Hallelujah, and was quietly sad to see only a handful in the whole Coliseum do the same. What a bunch of sheep. And I don’t mean ninja sheep.
