Thursday 15 August 2024

Harun Musho'd Reads Bad Political memoirs (So You Don't Have To), Strathmore Bar, PBH Free Fringe, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Very much still a Work in progress, this Free Fringe show takes a look a four recent volumes of memoirs from distinctly non-literary figures. Books by (?) Prince Harry, Nadine Dorries, Liz Truss and Matt Hancock are not something most sensible people would consider worth a look. So Musho'd has done it for us, and provides the highlights. Well, lowlights.

Harun has some professional insight into most of these works, having worked in the Houses of Parliament until a couple of years ago, so this isn't just someone having a dig. He has some insider knowledge of a lot of the events being written about. But he's also there to be funny, and extremely personable, and with such dire source material he has plenty to work from.

He reads out selected quotes which suggest all four 'authors' write dreadful prose (Hancock the only real exception), misunderstand the world around them, indulge in exculpatory self deception, and don't shirk from lies where they can advance their own aggrandisement. They also suggest a great lack of editing!

It's entertaining stuff, and at the end he explains how he intends to develop the show, making it more about the 14 year disaster of tory rule (so Harry will go, Cameron comes in).

Worth seeing it for itself, but also to see this current incarnation to be able to compare it with the finished article this time next year.

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