Theatre review: Trumpus Interruptus

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Donald Trump, as played by Zach Tomasovic, is a gentler, more wistful version of the original, more lost soul than liar.

Greenside @ Infirmary Street (Venue 236)

***

The Oval Office is reduced here to a tiny desk with a pair of very large red buttons, one for ordering Diet Pepsi, the other for launching a nuclear strike.

This is a charming, surprisingly subtle, low-fi satire that avoids the pitfalls of parody with a subject well beyond it, and finds the silliness in Nero fiddling while the rest of the world has a heart attack.

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Tomasovic and Nate McLeod, playing Jared Kushner, Vladimir Putin and a few other notorious characters, deliver their own kind of madness as they scrabble around with cassette tapes in ill-fitting wigs. The scene in the stalls at the National Ballet of Slovenia is a particular scene to remember.

McLeod, an LA-based actor and writer, and Tomasovic, a comedian in New York, are both alumni of The Mask and Wig Club, America’s oldest all-male collegiate comedy group. The show is about the implosion, rather than the impeachment, of Donald Trump, not with a bang but a whimper. Dream on. But if you’re looking for relief from the doom and gloom from Washington, this decently daft show will do nicely.

Until 12 August. Today 9:55pm.

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