by Simon Woods
seen by live streaming from the National Theatre (Lyttleton) on 7 November 2019
Simon Godwin directs Alex Jennings as Robin Hesketh (MP and junior Cabinet Minister) and Lindsay Duncan as his wife Diana in an intense drama which begins almost innocuously as social or political comedy set in May 1988, in the week that the Local Government Act including the notorious section 28 was passed into law.
Robin returns to the marital home in the Cotswolds on the Saturday morning after the crucial vote to find Diana still not dressed, and a familiar sparring begins in which it becomes clear that she has nothing but scorn for the role of politician's wife, and, even more difficult for her husband, little sympathy with Tory policy or the general outlook of her husband. The arguments are presumably well worn in the house, but still engaged on both sides with some degree of passion mixed with the sort of resigned weariness that allows the audience to be amused.
