Well-crafted contemporary political commentary delivered with real power, precision and punch. Rating
Excellent
I think I’m going to have to stop reading content warnings before I undertake reviews. Having thought that I had booked to see a comedy, I made a final check of the details before leaving the house and was confronted with a summary for this show that would potentially cast a completely different light over the whole night.
That meant that when The Red Prince at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre launched its first in a series of (what turned out to be) relentless sharp political gags, I was conflicted. Was I supposed to be laughing? The answer was a definite yes.
Benjamin May plays new Labour MP Craig Kitman in this sharp political satire. Eighteen months into power and it seems that both politically and personally the wheels have most definitely fallen off the bus for this utterly exhausted and already jaded MP. After being caught by a local reporter Googling how to do his job in the early days of power, it’s downhill from there really. Divorce and alcoholism follow, quickly succeeded by a scandal that threatens to ruin him.
This is played out in an hour-long potent and athletic monologue, delivered directly to the audience from Kitman’s constituency office. From the incessant and triggering (but strangely not mentioned in the content warning) sounds of digital alerts and alarms which open the show, May’s Kitman emerges as a flawed but deeply human character who is trying to do his best. What his plight highlights is the inhumanity of politics, the lack of nuance in UK political life both professionally and personally, and the ineffectiveness of our current political system.
Nothing is spared writer Tim Dawson’s scalpel-sharp nib, as the targets of his satire fire like a machine gun into the audience. This is clearly not a script that has been sitting on a dusty shelf while it gestates into a fully-fledged work; the gags are so contemporary (Peter Mandelson) that it makes the work feel very much alive. It would be wrong of me to try and resurrect some of the best lines here simply because they are so well crafted that my re-phrasing will not do them justice. In the phrasing so commonly used by our politicians: let me be absolutely clear, I do not want anyone to miss this show. This show is meticulously prepared and delivered. May’s comic timing is note-perfect and he has a deep understanding of Kitman’s character. His is a deeply compelling performance.
That said, this relentless comic register is the one area where the show slightly limits its own impact. Given the gravity of the material and the very real human cost that underpins Kitman’s disintegration, a greater variation of tone or a moment of stillness might have allowed the themes to settle more deeply and, paradoxically, given the comedy even more potency. Even so, this remains a sharply observed, fiercely intelligent piece of theatre, delivered with extraordinary nuance and stamina. It’s hard to imagine anyone leaving without feeling both invigorated and uncomfortably implicated.
Written by: Tim Dawson
Directed by: Susan Nickson
The Red Prince plays at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre until Saturday 7 March.
