The Telegraph - 10th October 2012
It’s not often that I sit through a three-hour play wishing it longer. But James Graham’s superb new drama held me and I suspect everyone else in the audience enthralled throughout.
It is by turns funny, touching and cliff-hangingly suspenseful. What’s more, despite the usual formal insistence that this is a fictional piece, it is almost all true.
The action begins in February 1974 when Edward Heath called a general election with the question “Who Governs?”only to receive a raspberry from the electorate who replied “not you matey”.
But nor did they ringingly endorse Labour and neither party commanded an overall majority. Harold Wilson formed a minority Government and eight months later went to the polls again hoping for a decent working majority.
He achieved one of just three, yet somehow the Labour Government limped on, with the help of shifting alliances with smaller parties, with James Callaghan later serving as PM until 1979 when Margaret Thatcher came to power.
I can still vividly remember those shabby years of industrial unrest, spiralling inflation and the feeling that Britain was a failing nation. I even stood on a picket line myself during the winter of discontent.
Graham however confines his play entirely to the Palace of Westminster and the audience sit watching the traverse staging on the green benches of the House of Commons Chamber. A few famous political incidents are staged, among them Michael Heseltine swinging the mace around and John Stonehouse faking his own death.
Most of the action however takes place in the Labour and Conservative whips’ offices where the political dark arts are practised and bolshie dissenters are bullied, blackmailed or bribed into submission.
Graham has researched his play with exemplary thoroughness and there is a thrilling tang of authenticity about the piece. This you feel must have been what it was really like.
There is also a good deal of comedy, much of it black. Labour’s precarious position wasn’t helped by the fact that so many of its MPs died in office, and we watch them going down like ninepins, as well as the seriously ill being dragged into the Palace of Westminster to vote.
If you wanted to carp you might complain that the Labour characters are generally presented more sympathetically than the Tories, who tend to come over as sneering toffs, but even that criticism must be qualified. The noblest act in a play brimming with bad faith and back-stabbing on both sides comes from a Tory.
Jeremy Herrin’s production ensures that this wordy and complex piece seethes with dramatic energy. There’s a live band to deliver a couple of highly apposite David Bowie numbers, and Rae Smith’s designs memorably capture the Palace of Westminster.
There are cracking performances, too. Special praise must go to Philip Glenistster as a truculent old bruiser of a whip with a warm heart beating somewhere beneath his tough facade, and Charles Edwards as his suave, sharply suited Tory opposite number who in the grubby world of Westminster suggests a genuine generosity of spirit.
When the theatrical prize-giving season begins, I have little doubt that This House will be a strong contender for the best new play of 2012.
It is by turns funny, touching and cliff-hangingly suspenseful. What’s more, despite the usual formal insistence that this is a fictional piece, it is almost all true.
The action begins in February 1974 when Edward Heath called a general election with the question “Who Governs?”only to receive a raspberry from the electorate who replied “not you matey”.
But nor did they ringingly endorse Labour and neither party commanded an overall majority. Harold Wilson formed a minority Government and eight months later went to the polls again hoping for a decent working majority.
He achieved one of just three, yet somehow the Labour Government limped on, with the help of shifting alliances with smaller parties, with James Callaghan later serving as PM until 1979 when Margaret Thatcher came to power.
I can still vividly remember those shabby years of industrial unrest, spiralling inflation and the feeling that Britain was a failing nation. I even stood on a picket line myself during the winter of discontent.
Graham however confines his play entirely to the Palace of Westminster and the audience sit watching the traverse staging on the green benches of the House of Commons Chamber. A few famous political incidents are staged, among them Michael Heseltine swinging the mace around and John Stonehouse faking his own death.
Most of the action however takes place in the Labour and Conservative whips’ offices where the political dark arts are practised and bolshie dissenters are bullied, blackmailed or bribed into submission.
Graham has researched his play with exemplary thoroughness and there is a thrilling tang of authenticity about the piece. This you feel must have been what it was really like.
There is also a good deal of comedy, much of it black. Labour’s precarious position wasn’t helped by the fact that so many of its MPs died in office, and we watch them going down like ninepins, as well as the seriously ill being dragged into the Palace of Westminster to vote.
If you wanted to carp you might complain that the Labour characters are generally presented more sympathetically than the Tories, who tend to come over as sneering toffs, but even that criticism must be qualified. The noblest act in a play brimming with bad faith and back-stabbing on both sides comes from a Tory.
Jeremy Herrin’s production ensures that this wordy and complex piece seethes with dramatic energy. There’s a live band to deliver a couple of highly apposite David Bowie numbers, and Rae Smith’s designs memorably capture the Palace of Westminster.
There are cracking performances, too. Special praise must go to Philip Glenistster as a truculent old bruiser of a whip with a warm heart beating somewhere beneath his tough facade, and Charles Edwards as his suave, sharply suited Tory opposite number who in the grubby world of Westminster suggests a genuine generosity of spirit.
When the theatrical prize-giving season begins, I have little doubt that This House will be a strong contender for the best new play of 2012.
Original article can be found here.
Copyright @PhilipGlenisterFans. All Rights Reserved. This is a non-profit website, and all material on this site is meant for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended and all content provided or linked to on this site is copyrighted to their respective owners, photographers, and representatives. Watermarks are meant for site promotion only and do not indicate ownership. If you come across something you would like removed, please contact us before taking further action and we will remove it.