4 STARS, May 22-26. A dazzling piece of darkly comic political satire, rooted in the 1970s but with continuing relevance today, says Andrew Morris
Johan Persson
Order! Order! Calm down in the chamber, please, and enjoy this dazzling political satire. Ayes to the left, noes to the right….
James Graham’s inventive piece of theatre transferred to the West End after a hugely successful debut at the National Theatre, and is now touring the country. Catch it at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford until Saturday, May 26.
This House is fictionalised, but firmly rooted in what happened during the remarkable Labour government of 1974-1979. Initially a hung parliament, then one with a wafer-thin majority, Labour’s survival depended on firm party discipline, dodgy back-room deals and fragile parliamentary traditions.
Cue the whips, MPs from each political party appointed to ‘encourage’ their members to vote the way the party wants them to. Most of the action takes place in the whips’ offices, laying bare the machinations of daily political life, especially when every vote is dangling by a thread.
The production is highly stylised and darkly comic. The chamber performs dance routines, ballot papers waving in the air or mock-fighting a reluctant new speaker of the House. A rock band belts out 1970s songs from the balcony. A Labour MP – a parody of disgraced John Stonehouse – is carried away on billowing blue sheets, as he fakes his own death by drowning.
In the whips’ offices, the beer-swilling foul-mouthed working-class Labour team use every trick in the book to keep the party in power. The prospect of devolution is used to bribe the Scots, Welsh and Irish ‘odds-and-sods’ to get them past the voting post. Amongst their own MPs, a terminally sick member is wheeled in with his oxygen tank, a new mother breast-feeds her baby and a helicopter is commandeered to get another MP to the floor in time for a key vote.
Johan Persson
johan persson
Johan Persson
Meanwhile, the debonair, smart-suited wine-drinking Tory whips plot to bring down the government. When a tactical line is crossed by Labour, they retract the ancient tradition of ‘pairing’ MPs in a vote. They propose so many amendments to bills that it paralyses the organ of government. And when rebel Labour MP for Coventry South West sticks by her principles rather than the whip, the die is finally cast.
After 4½ years of Labour government – more like parliamentary inertia, ‘but at least we kept that lot out of power’ – Maggie Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of a new Conservative government. With an overall majority.
Although This House takes place in the dark days of the 1970s, its relevance today is striking. The role of women, our relationship with Europe, the future of the United Kingdom, the stifling effects of coalition government or dodgy vote-clinching deals, all resonate today as loudly as Big Ben chimes in the House of Commons chamber.
A true ensemble piece, the talented cast play multiple roles with high energy and low morals. Special mention must go to James Gaddas, as legendary Labour whip Walter Harrison, and Matthew Pidgeon as Tory counterpart Jack Weatherill, polarised opposites on the political and class spectrums, but with a grudging respect for each other through all the parliamentary battles.
Enjoy this piece of innovative theatre for its political history, insight into the daily workings of government, comic brilliance, 1970s music and clever set designs. This House runs late into the Guildford night, but that just makes you feel even more emotionally engaged in the attritional, combative nature of our party political system.
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