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Sleazy satire gets the panto vote
Independent, The (London), Nov 12, 2008 by Alice Jones
A Cabinet Minister's husband is due in court for charges relating to his "innovative" overseas investment portfolio. The Home Secretary's child is caught smoking dope. Meanwhile, the Labour Party's chief fundraiser, a flashy Jewish former pop impresario, is raking in the cash from willing donors via "chance" meetings over chilled white Burgundy .
Sound familiar? That's the point and no amount of strenuous assertion that Gethsemane is "pure fiction" can disguise that. Half the fun in David Hare's new play comes from spotting the parallels - a Jowell jibe here, a Deripaska dig there.
This is the third instalment in a series from Britain's shining knight of political theatre which began in 2003 with The Permanent Way, a verbatim piece about rail privatisation, followed by the urgent Stuff Happens in which real speeches from Bush and Blair were intercut with imagined scenes about the run-up to war in Iraq.
Now Hare has turned his hand to party funding, the peg on which he hangs a wider debate between idealism and pragmatism. He has ramped up the drama with 17 short, often angry scenes, added jokes and held back on the verbose sermons/arguments he so often favours. And while some of its striving to be trendy is a touch mid-life crisis-esque - not least the techno remixes of classical music - Howard Davies ' production zips along. Bob Crowley's shape-shifting set, a white box going from office to squash court to Sicilian coast, is fabulous.
As usual, Hare interweaves the political and professional with the personal. Oleaginous fundraiser, Otto Fallon (Stanley Townsend) recruits the unambitious husband of the idealistic teacher, Lori (Nicola Walker) to work with him pumping the rich. Across town, the Home Secretary is flapping to hide the misdemeanours of her Winehouse-eyed teenage daughter who is dabbling publicly in sex and drugs. Handily, Fallon happens to be a most generous member of the board of governors but, one cover-up in place, Meredith Guest's dodgy husband comes under the spotlight.
Hare has drawn these characters with the broadest of brush- strokes: Fallon is a graduate of the school of tough knocks and the university of life. A hairdresser-turned-mogul-turned-bigwig with slicked-back ponytail, he has pulled himself up "from Hendon to Hampstead", while gimlet-eyed Guest, played with wonderful rigour by Tamsin Greig, is a career automaton who can't be in a room alone with her daughter. The hip PM - a brilliant Anthony Calf - is in full Boden gear behind his drum kit. The only surprising figure is Fallon's spivvy henchman - a hilarious turn from Pip Carter, all unpindownable accent, brown suede shoes and social grievances.
You know you're in a Hare play from the moment Lori walks out on stage, bathed in cool blue light, and gives the opening address. There are a lot of these moments which, combined with the weird way Hare thinks people talk - repetitive ticks and neat aphorisms - add up to an unconvincing play. This is a world where rich men are uncultured oiks, politicians are inhuman, comprehensive school teachers are saints and journalists are slimeballs. Christmas has come early to the National Theatre - go along to boo and hiss at the biggest political panto in town.
First Night
Gethsemane
National Theatre, Cottesloe
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