Theatre Royal, Glasgow
3 stars
It’s not everyday all the Tory party’s Christmases come at once. This almost happens in Steve Thompson’s piece of cynical satire, which premiered at The Bush in 2006 and has been upscaled for this commercial tour following its west end run. The dream ticket goes like this. David Cameron has been elected Prime Minister with a slender three seat majority. But, with a crucial vote intending to undermine the absent Etonian’s already rocky power-base, some serious behind-the-scenes power-plays are the order of the day. Throw in one of Blair’s ex-babes who proves equally adept in the dirty tricks department and an ambitious hack who almost works her wiles, and it’s a pretty nasty if entirely credible portrait of the despicable way in which the establishment operate.
As his previous play, the tabloid newsroom set Damages proved, Thompson is clearly turned on by the back-room machinations of power. Yet, just like the series of double-bluffs that go on between ministers onstage, Terry Johnson’s production proves something of a twin-edged sword. The familiarity of Richard Wilson’s presence as curmudgeonly Chief Whip Fulton implies a despatch box of belly laughs are in the offing when it is actually mining a far darker strain of humour. Where it should go for the jugular, the end result fudges on both counts, and ends up being little more than naughty fun.
It’s nevertheless some kind of attempt to show exactly why politicians of any hue aren’t to be trusted. As has been observed recently, voters remain a mere after-thought in what’s still one big common room jape in the make-believe democracy we live in.
The Herald, November 7th 2007
ends
3 stars
It’s not everyday all the Tory party’s Christmases come at once. This almost happens in Steve Thompson’s piece of cynical satire, which premiered at The Bush in 2006 and has been upscaled for this commercial tour following its west end run. The dream ticket goes like this. David Cameron has been elected Prime Minister with a slender three seat majority. But, with a crucial vote intending to undermine the absent Etonian’s already rocky power-base, some serious behind-the-scenes power-plays are the order of the day. Throw in one of Blair’s ex-babes who proves equally adept in the dirty tricks department and an ambitious hack who almost works her wiles, and it’s a pretty nasty if entirely credible portrait of the despicable way in which the establishment operate.
As his previous play, the tabloid newsroom set Damages proved, Thompson is clearly turned on by the back-room machinations of power. Yet, just like the series of double-bluffs that go on between ministers onstage, Terry Johnson’s production proves something of a twin-edged sword. The familiarity of Richard Wilson’s presence as curmudgeonly Chief Whip Fulton implies a despatch box of belly laughs are in the offing when it is actually mining a far darker strain of humour. Where it should go for the jugular, the end result fudges on both counts, and ends up being little more than naughty fun.
It’s nevertheless some kind of attempt to show exactly why politicians of any hue aren’t to be trusted. As has been observed recently, voters remain a mere after-thought in what’s still one big common room jape in the make-believe democracy we live in.
The Herald, November 7th 2007
ends
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