by James Graham
seen at the Garrick Theatre on 11 January 2017
Directed by Jeremy Herrin, this production has transferred from Chichester, though the play was first presented at the National Theatre in 2012. It features Nathaniel Hawthorne as Jack Weatherill (the Tory Deputy Chief Whip), Steffan Rhodri as Walter Harrison (the Labour Deputy Chief Whip), with Malcolm Sinclair as the Tory Chief Whip, Phil Daniels as the Labour Chief Whip (until his demise), and Lauren O'Neill as Ann Taylor, the only female (Labour) whip. Other cast members take various parts as MPs both lesser known and famous - there are cameo appearances for John Stonehouse, Norman St Jon Stevas and Michael Heseltine.
The set represents the House of Commons, and some members of the audience are seated as if on the Commons benches or in the visitors' galleries. Adroit lighting turns parts of the stage into other Parliamentary venues, in particular the Government and Opposition Whips' offices (there's a delicious joke that the Government office has chairs with adjustable seats whereas the Opposition has to make so with ordinary - though still not uncomfortable - chairs). The play examines the fraught years from 1974 to 1978 when Labour formed the government firstly in a hung parliament and then with the slenderest of majorities, leading to desperate measures to ensure that crucial votes were passed, thus avoiding a vote of no confidence.
