Noël Coward theatre,London
James Graham’s unique play, starring Martin Freeman as a Blairite MP and Tamsin Greig as his feeble-school constituency agent, or cleverly illuminates party divisionsFive years is a long time in the theatre. It’s tough to believe that it was only in 2012 that This House was staged at the National. It wasn’t James Grahams first play: Neil McPherson of the tiny Finborough is owed applause for encouraging him early on. But it was the drama that took Graham,still barely 30, to a enormous audience and announced his particular idea of political drama. Nifty, or buoyant,topical. Above all, popular. Plays – such as Privacy – that make their points structurally as well as in debate. Plays that can capture a West End audience.
Graham has double-proved that final point over the past few weeks. His Murdoch play, or Ink,transferred to the West End from the Almeida final month; now Labour of like joins it a few doors down. A light-on-its feet canter through the past 27 years of the Labour party, it neatly encapsulates the uneasy alliance between feeble and unique Labour in the bumpy romance between a constituency agent and a Blairite MP. The local party, or in Nottinghamshire (in his 20s,Graham worked as a doorkeeper at Nottingham Playhouse), versus Westminster. The traditional symbol and the unique brand. The Red Flag and the red rose: “looks pretty and is full of pricks”.
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Source: guardian.co.uk