Comedy review: #JC4PM, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh


#JC4PM | Rating: *** | Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Finding mainstream musicians prepared to stick their head above the parapet these days is no mean feat and so the textily-titled #JC4PM is headlined by Charlotte Church, who brought mighty, soaring vocals and left-of-centre electronica rather than rhetoric, with a support bill of speakers, poets and comedians, including veteran campaigners Jeremy Hardy, acting as MC for the evening, and Mark Steel, both of whom were happy to confront the prevailing political mood across the spectrum with some well aimed barbs.
There were no barbs from Barbara Nice, just gentle but disarming character comedy, nor Edinburgh transplant Jo Caulfield with her droll local observations. Such light relief was interspersed with thought-provoking performance poetry from Jim Monaghan, speeches from MSPs Neil Findlay and Elaine Smith, and trenchant words from Chris Nineham of the Stop the War Coalition but while the tone may inevitably have varied throughout proceedings, certain themes recurred – the demonisation of the poor and migrants, Trident and the unfortunate tendency for left-wing political groups to divide against themselves.