Millie Deere reviews Bill Bailey’s latest thought-provoking and very funny show at London’s Royal Haymarket Theatre until 15th February
A sleek, black set lined with musical instruments of assorted ilk. Bill Bailey in all black bar two roses embroidered onto his shirt. Upstage, a projection of rolling meadows littered with pipes snaking across the landscape in an eerie yet colourful engulfment of the natural world. Thoughtifier immediately strikes an unsettling chord of a tarnished humanity, which Bailey’s very human whimsies aim to flip on its head.
So, what is Thoughtifier about? In Bailey’s words, ‘[r]ather than panic about AI and worry about how much it’s going to take over, I just think we ought to […] revel in human achievement and creativity’, ‘consciousness’, and ‘the way that we’re able to create music’.
Extolling the wonder of human harmonisation in his coaxing of a rather bashful audience to join him in a recorder-led melody (indeed a vivid reminder of our ‘school nemesis’) was perhaps not the most compelling starting evidence, though maybe I can only blame my tone-deaf peers sat my immediate vicinity. An interactive song with some Bluetooth balls was certainly more stimulating and aroused some inelegant British giggles.
In any case, Bailey’s own music was predictably outstanding. To everyone’s delight, a range of stringed instruments were lined up proudly on stage right eagerly awaiting their moment to be strummed by the national treasure.
Fans will be gleefully satiated with numbers ranging from a woeful warble of crab regret to a serenade at the checkout till, and a Turkish translation of Coldplay’s Yellow on a bouzouki. Other highlights included Happy Birthday (aka the ‘milestone of decay’) in MM7 key (a cocktail of the ‘needy’ minor and ‘evocative’ major key) and a triumphant finale on a laser techno harp. Indeed, it is Bailey’s eccentrically experimental musical numbers that mark the comedic culmination of his performance.
Curiously, Bailey attempts to grapple with some of the heavier themes of bee extinction, AI takeover, and faltering British politics with a disco ball ominously strung above his head (it’s a shame he didn’t hark back to his Strictly days and break out into a quickstep). This contradiction is symbolic of the occasional seesawing between varying meditations on existence without landing firmly on one trajectory of discussion.
While perhaps slightly bemused about his exact point, the audience leaves in stitches after two hours of ceaseless giggling. Bailey is a wonder to watch; at once highly au fait with the contemporary socio-political milieu yet lining in a mind of his own (in the best way possible). His wit, multifaceted musical talents, and rib-tickling ruminations Thoughtifier just a lot of pure fun.
Four stars ****, Millie Deere.
Bill Bailey’s new book My Animals and Other Animals is out now; visit BILL BAILEY
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