Barry Humphries cooks up a storm in Boston with his latest show. Or is it just a vinegary drizzle?

What does theatre do? Two seemingly paradoxical things—it confronts the truth and it provides an escape. Perhaps we have to escape in order to recognise the truth. So when Edna says ‘You can’t be politically incorrect but I can. I can even tell the truth,’ she seems to be onto something. Something that only the theatre can accomplish, because, after all, Edna is not what she seems. It’s the grotesque, larger-than-life reality of the illusion that draws us in.