A comedic satire about the failings of the Liberal Democrats was only a matter of time before it makes it to the stage and here it is, written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky. It was written in the style of Yes, Minister and in a caricature manner based on fictitious events springing from the all too easy jokes to be made about the Liberal-Democrats. Suffice to say, it wasn’t my type of humour and the performance had too much of a pantomime quality to it. In the age of cutting and somewhat more subtle satire such as “The thick of it” on TV and even contrasting accomplished political play such as “This House” at the National, this seems naive and poorly conceived. It might have worked in the 80s but this is dated before a word was uttered in rehearsal. Compounding to the problem were the performances, especially Alistair Barrie as the principled MP whose could hardly act with a single expression throughout his scene ruined the only serious plot line there was. Phil Jupitus’ Tory advisor is a wig short of a pantomime villain. I wasn’t there to see the second half of the play.
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