A Very British Coup?

Rupa Huq reviews a West End double bill with a strong Questors influence

A scene from Kyoto

Early memories of the phenomenon of West End theatre for me included the play titles “No Sex Please We’re British” and “The Mousetrap”. Both concepts were present in this dazzling double bill by Scots playwright David Greig consisting of two offerings in a political vein which touch on some heavy subjects in a light-hearted way.

Kyoto revolves around a pair in a hotel room. We learn that they have both stolen away from their regular partners and are miles away from home for a night of passion amidst the earnestness of a climate change conference in a former communist state. They had almost got it together at similar symposiums over the years but a combination of the plenaries and negotiation sessions plus the fact of “the world watching” had always got in the way.

Their verbal jousting (she’s from the world of science and he’s a civil servant) had the audience in tears of laughter at times with some smart one-liners like “For a polar scientist you’re not very chilled out”. Behind the banter though lies serious social commentary – like the observation that the conference sleeping arrangements of nation states equated with power structures.

If Kyoto is topical for the Theresa May’s government abolition of the Department for Energy and Climate Change then The Letter of Last Resort about a newly installed woman Prime Minister burning the midnight oil at her paperwork seems even more a case of life imitating art. Given the examining of consciences necessitated by the recent House of Commons vote on Trident renewal this darkly humorous treatment of the bomb and whether deterrents can ever deter has multiple contemporary resonances.

The PM (TM?) is required to write a letter that will go into a safe within a second safe within a Trident submarine to only be read in the event of a hypothetical nuclear attack leaving London wiped out. Jeremy Corbyn recently said he would never push the button, here the fictional no-nonsense northern lass who has just been swept to power must decide what she’d do with her Greenham-protesting past jarring with the cold reality of being a head of state giving posthumous orders.

The production was all the better for its strong Ealing connections: Questors am-dram theatre leading figure and my constituent Robert Gordon Clark excelled in his pompous portrayal of “John from arrangements”, the dour jobsworthy functionary presiding over the hand-wringing and delivering the bad news that there is no pre-existing template for this crucial memo on “a small key matter”.

Robert Gordon Clark in The Letter of Last Resort

Indeed both plays starred what were respectively a real-life married couple apiece which made the sometimes spikey relations between the two pairs faultless. Questors folk designed the sets and did all the technical bits behind the scenes at this small but perfectly formed basement theatre which was new to me. Thought-provoking, warm, witty and funny all in one package. I also learnt a lot.

Kyoto and The Letter of Last Resort are on as a double-bill at Jermyn Street Theatre, Piccadilly Circus 020 7287 2875 until Saturday August 13 2016.

Rupa Huq MP
Ealing Central & Acton

August 9, 2016