Political plays in the wrong hands are often little more than an irritatingly biased polemic. There is always always that nagging feeling that one is being got at and that our ‘hard earned’ is being squandered at the foot of someone’s soap box. Not so with James Graham’s semi-historical play about events of the turbulent 1974-79 parliament of Wilson/Callaghan. The ‘star’ of this piece is no favoured ideology or soaring political reputation but, the unwritten British constitution. Tousle-headed and resilient, it comes out, depending on one’s confirmation bias, as a shining example of how to get on (or muddle through) in a state with conflicting party interests or an indictment of the self-interest of the two-party politics.
The action takes place in the opposing whips’ offices – what one MP refers to as ‘the engine room’ – where deals are done and party discipline is enforced (without universal compliance). It concerns the attempts by the incumbent Labour government to facilitate, and by the Conservative opposition to frustrate, the business of Parliament under conditions where the ruling party has either no overall or a very slender majority. Personalities emerge to add colour, but without any decisive influence. It is the system which controls events. Only when that is challenged by the Labour whips breaking the unwritten rules governing ‘pairing’ does everything fall apart. Nonetheless in such febrile conditions people do matter, each individual MP’s vote does count and nothing and no one can be taken for granted.
Names have been changed on an ad hoc basis so actual, named politicians are found crossing swords with place-holders that have been inserted for dramatic purposes. MPs emotions on both sides continually swing from elation to near apoplexy as deals are done and stratagems frustrated.
Moments of theatrical imagination are thrown in apparently willy-nilly. Thus John Stonehouse fakes his own drowning under a large blue cloth and all MPs prance and sing for no apparent reason other than to entertain us and lend a slightly comical mood to proceedings. The overall feeling was of a high quality Open University production explaining the function and working of the whip’s office in Parliament as applied to an actual historical case. As such the play is education with entertainment and comes at a time when contemporary conditions add the seasoning of relevance for today’s politicking.
Jonathan O’Boyle’s panelled set with the great face of Big Ben looming behind sets us firmly in Westminster, whilst the on-stage band locate us in time with songs from the period. All that was missing was any reference to the overt misogyny and bullying that has emerged being no less of an institution in the Mother of Parliaments. ★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles 20th March 2018
Photo by Johan Persson
