Tuesday 11 November 2014

Great Britain - Theatre Royal Haymarket

If you can overlook the foul language (and it really is bad) then this political satire by Richard Bean is quite insightful. He appears to be examining the unethical links between the press, the police and politics.
An overly ambitious journalist, Paige Britain (Lucy Punch) is determined to do what she has to, no matter how immoral, to make it to the top of her career. She exploits the innocent to sell more papers and sleeps with who she has to in order to obtain favours. But the standout character for me was the ignorant Met Commissioner, Sully Kassam, played by Aaron Neil. The first-ever Asian commissioner has no idea what is going on and the utter fool that he is, is immediately evident. The MP’s expense scandal, Milly Dowler and other phone hacking cases – it’s all there. And though names and situations are disguised, anyone who followed any of the major press stories over the last few years, will have no trouble discerning which story line in the play relates to which real life event.

I hated the vulgarity of this production, but having worked myself for several years in media, this crudeness made it made it all the more believable.

Great Britain can be seen @ Theatre Royal Haymarket until 10th January 

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