Little Lark of London

“This is the path to self-forgiveness”

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if a tyrannical king from the Bible ran a pyramid scheme in the 21st century? Wonder no longer, as Riss Obolensky: Healing King Herod is here to answer that particular question. For those unfamiliar with King Herod, he was the king of Judea from 37 to 4 BCE who is most well-known for the role he played in the story of Jesus Christ. According to the New Testament of the Bible, he had all infants in Bethlehem murdered, trying to kill the baby Jesus before he could become too powerful. 

The beginning is probably the strongest part of the show where we are shown a flashback of King Herod before the programme that changed his life, back when he was still a tyrant intent on destroying Jesus, who is depicted by a baby hanging on a hook from the ceiling. It’s a funny bit that goes awry when the hook falls from the ceiling, leaving Obolensky to toss the baby doll up and down, hitting it with a baseball bat. We are then introduced to the 21st-century Herod, who has learned to forgive himself using a self-development programme that we, the audience, have paid to take part in, learning to transform ourselves just like Herod. 

Unfortunately, while I really wanted to enjoy the show, I struggled to follow how it connected to the biblical king as his pyramid scheme. The name of “Herod” could be replaced by any name for the majority of the show, with only a few bits actually focused on the king and his past actions. There were times where it felt like Obolensky spent too long focusing on one thing, like two minutes for audience members to discuss why they had come to the “programme,” instead of actually looking at the promised wellness programme that changed Herod’s life. There are only a few moments that are connected to the story of King Herod and they’re taking very seriously in comparison to the rest of the work, except for some truly bizarres scenes where Obolensky strips down into a diaper and begins to act like a baby, representing the children Herod had killed. 

There are some truly bizarre bits that don’t really make sense even with the context revealed towards the end of the show, like the sponsor of the performance being about someone being unable to see because of jam in their eyes (which leads to an even stranger bit about eating jam tarts) or Herod having an argument with the person in the tech booth Hannah. This particular bit doesn’t really make any sense as we are only introduced to the character of Hannah with a few minutes left before the end of the show and we aren’t even given context to the “rave” that is being interrupted. It also appears that several things go wrong during the performance, including several quick changes and some prop malfunctions, including the previously-mentioned baby Jesus falling from the ceiling. The crown Obolensky wears is also too big, though this may have been for comedic effect to make Herod look even more incompetent. 

Ultimately, Riss Obolensky: Healing King Herod is a show with an interesting concept that unfortunately gets lost in itself very quickly, focusing more on absurdist bits than the story of King Herod it promises in its description. With a strong focus on the character and the self-development pyramid scheme, Obolensky could take the interesting character of Herod they have created to the next level. 

Riss Obolensky: Healing King Herodran from 28 to 29 March at Soho Theatre. For more information, click here.