Review: Conspiracy Theory – A Lizard's Tale

Marlon Solomon is a Jewish man living in the UK, a country that didn’t mean that much to him until he started to encounter Holocaust denial and blood libel accusations in his everyday life. This started him down the path into the dark world of conspiracy theories to investigate why these deeply racist notions are resurging in popularity.

Solomon plows into the storied history of anti-Zionist conspiracy theories, from the fabricated Protocols of Zion to modern allegations of a lizard world order. The spoken-word presentation is crammed with information, but Solomon is an endearing host who keeps it light and entertaining with hairdresser skits, anti-Zionist rap, and Facebook-comment karaoke.

The message of this show is an important one, which is that conspiracy theorists have done a just-good-enough job of hiding their rampant antisemitism behind the fig leaf of anti-Zionism. Consequently, they’ve been able to operate with near impunity, with rank-and-file adherents on both the left and right sides of politics. And, anti-racist activists have been too slow (or too unwilling) to catch on to this. Conspiracy Theory is heavy on its content, but it comes with a polished delivery in an accessible format. And it ends on a positive final note.