Life in 2021 is a bit like the 17th century: plague sweeping the land and marauding Puritans destroying statues, except the Puritans had cooler hats. Much of what is sometimes called “The Great Awokening” discloses the same deeply Protestant tendency to be so anxious about the strength of a belief one must continually declaim it from the rooftops. And there is no better chronicler of this new religion—where what you do doesn’t matter so much as what you believe—than Titania McGrath, a radical intersectional feminist and slam poet who, perhaps fittingly, does not exist.
Titania is the work of British comedian Andrew Doyle, and represents the second time a Doyle creation has become more famous than its inventor. His first effort—better known in the UK than the US—was fake journalist Jonathan Pie. A political correspondent, Pie appears in videos where he rants and explodes in anger about the state of British politics; the videos are presented as though he were a real reporter speaking to camera before or after filming a regular news segment. Pie, however, was from the beginning played by an actor, Tom Walker. Walker is an individual with considerable comedic talent of his own, and his magnetic stage presence made the character into a YouTube and touring sensation. In the early days, Doyle would often appear as Pie’s understudy in Walker’s live performances without audiences appreciating the extent to which the two men collaborated.
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