Ink

by James Graham

seen at the Almeida Theatre on 5 July 2017

Rupert Goold directs Bertie Carvel as Rupert Murdoch and Richard Coyle as Larry Lamb with support from eleven others in this new play concerning Murdoch's acquisition of the Sun newspaper and his editor's efforts to surpass the sales figures of the rival Daily Mirror within a year.

Once again James Graham has looked to a significant episode in British life from four or five decades ago and converted it into a fascinating play which turns out to have unexpected contemporary relevance. This House dealt with the minority Labour government of the mid-1970s and exposed in dramatic form the extraordinary stresses under which such a government operates from day to day. Now, after the recent election, the Tories find themselves in a similar and unenviable situation, and barely a month since the election it is already clear that strength and stability may well be in short supply.

Ink deals with the emergence of Rupert Murdoch as an unignorable figure in the field of British print media, at just the time in which his Fox company is proposing to become the major shareholder (i.e. owner) of Sky. But the play presents a surprisingly nuanced picture of the younger Murdoch, physically awkward and often ill at ease, determined to smash what he sees as outdated and outmoded Fleet Street traditions, but occasionally nervous about the methods adopted by his editor. 

Larry Lamb, the northerner who had been a sub-editor at the Mirror but felt he had no prospects there, was offered the editorship of the failing Sun by Murdoch when he was preparing to buy it from the Mirror group. Lamb's mentor Hugh Cudlipp (David Schofield) begins in typical patronising mode, but although he soon sees the nature of the Murdoch threat he cannot persuade his fellow-editors to unite to outwit Murdoch and Lamb. In the meantime Lamb fatefully takes advantage of his new boss's encouragement and initiates a huge effort to make the Sun a populist newspaper, unaware of or unconcerned by the corrosive effect of his editorial policies.

The play brilliantly conveys the energy required to manage a Fleet Street newspaper, and the initially madcap adventurousness of trying something new and calling into question long-held traditions and practices. The action takes place in a wonderfully conceived set designed by Bunny Christie, which consists of piles of desks and other paraphernalia allowing for several acting levels and providing a strong visual equivalent to the hectic pace of events. The recruitment process, for example, is presented almost as a soft-shoe musical number, while the early editorial meetings have a heady excitement about them. The handling of the kidnapping of Muriel McKay (Sophie Stanton, also excellent as Joyce Hopkirk, the Sun's women's editor)), the wife of Murdoch's business partner, introduces a more sober note, especially as it backfires badly, but Lamb wordlessly shows Murdoch the consequent rise of circulation figures. Murdoch appears somewhat mollified but coolly observes that they still haven't beaten the Mirror.

The final episode concerns the preparation and publishing of the first Page Three topless photograph. Stephanie Rahn (Pearl Chanda), who agreed to be the model, has a long and awkward conversation with Lamb, who is plainly embarrassed on a personal level but determined on a business level to proceed. Stephanie has her own views, yet both they and Murdoch are caught out by their own reactions to the result - but the longed-for circulation result is reached.

Bertie Carvel gives an impressive performance as Murdoch, his physical presence by no means straightforwardly imposing, but weirdly ill at ease despite his ambition and developing ruthlessness. Richard Coyle's Larry Lamb is initially cautious, but increasingly enthused and self-confident. The supporting cast perform well, the masculine bravado nicely judged and the ever-present sexism indicated but not over-emphasised. Stephanie's reactions to the actual publication of the first Page Three are strongly conveyed in a scene in which she almost shames her editor and boss to silence, and she leaves with a withering 'Congratulations' on the achievement of their stated goal. Amazingly, amidst the tawdriness of what they have done, it is possible to feel a measure of sympathy for both these driven men, in part through understanding the pressures they chose to work under. However, even though one senses that Lamb may have regretted the outcome, finding that he could not stop Page Three once he had started it, one has to recall that he did, nevertheless, start it and that Murdoch did, in the event, support him before moving on to other even more lucrative things.