On paper it looks like a very good idea in a parliamentary election year to write a comedy satire about recent political events and imagining a new political party emerging bringing together a coalition of former conservative and labour politicians. However there have over the years been very successful stage shows on similar themes. James Graham’s brilliant 2012 play This House explored the politics of a hung parliament, Jonathan Lynn’s Yes, Prime Minister lampooned the relationship between MPs and civil servants and in early 2019 play The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson wonderfully sent up our then, future Prime Minister. In writing Party Games, author Michael McManus borrows from all three and adds in a host of references from tabloid reporting of political events between 2019 and 2022. Unfortunately, the result is a rag bag of weak jokes and puns wrapped around a thin plot about a buffoon of a newly elected Prime Minister for the One Nation party, with a pushy controlling wife behind the scenes battling against a scheming manipulative adviser (based on a caricature of Dominic Cummings) and a host of other ambitious civil servants, politicians, and advisers.

The script feels like it also borrows from different genres too. There is a pantomime villain dressed in grey who moves his way through the play in an odd crouching stance that cries out for boos and hisses with a few jokes that have long since been dropped by even the weakest pantomimes. There is a touch of farce with three doors and multiple fast paced entrances and exits by a variety of characters. The material feels like it might have worked in an Edinburgh Fringe show, or a Footlights Revue or a 30 minute fast paced TV sketch show but here it feels tedious overstretched and in need of a radical rewrite.

We get scathing comments on the political classes as “right wing wackos”, “numpties” and a PM who says it is “the first time I really worked for something” but rather than being funny they feel like a sad reflection on the dire state of British Politics. We get references to Scottish referendums, lock down due to volcanic ash, a covid enquiry running to 2057, changing the wallpaper, PPE, anti-monarchist protesters, the point of the House of Lords, Brexit and NHS- all very Boris Johnson. There are misunderstandings about “Un-Clear deterrents’” and “log sticks” for the weakest of puns and the classic “I sold my hoover as it was only gathering dust” also makes a return to the stage. It lacks topicality with no references (that we noticed) to the Post Office scandal, Rwanda deportations, SNP fraud and leadership changes or Labour deputies who fiddle their capital gains tax. Any of these topics might have given the play, set in the near future, a touch more freshness and spontaneity.

It is a heavy burden for the cast to carry and they gamely try to make the most of the material, but unfortunately the paper-thin cartoonish characterisations give them little to work with. We thought Anne was the mistress of the new PM until halfway through when we realised, she was meant to be a “Carrie” like wife. The PM is required to deliver a series of fart and stomach disorder jokes that in pantomime might get a laugh from the kids. The Chief Whip inexplicable carries a box containing a tarantula throughout just to produce a “dramatic” conclusion. Given the casts pedigree and experience they deserve to have a stronger script to get stuck into.

Having said that we have to admire what Yvonne Arnaud Chief Executive and the director of the production, Joanna Read, is trying to do in producing for her venue and six other south of England playhouses. As we wrote in our article “Risk and Reward in Theatrical venues” last month, these venues need content to bring audiences into the theatre and need to be bold and take risk to fill the gaps in the programme. It is not easy developing and staging new plays. This at least has a well-designed set by Francis O’Connor which sets the tone for the play and has some neat features to assist the narrative. In the next few months, the venue will stage the wonderful Kite Runner and the highly innovative staging of 39 Steps, two shows that demonstrate what can be achieved if the adapter and producer get it right. We urge you to book to see those shows and support this valuable local regional venue.

** Two Stars

Reviewed by Nick Wayne

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