thu 05/12/2024

Kingmaker, St James Theatre | reviews, news & interviews

Kingmaker, St James Theatre

Kingmaker, St James Theatre

New satire about Boris Johnson steers clear of reality

Behind closed doors: the unholy trinity of politicos (Laurence Dobiesz, Alan Cox and Joanna Bending) negotiateJeremy Abrahams

The news cycle waits for no man. When Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky’s thinly veiled Boris Johnson satire premiered in Edinburgh at the beginning of August, it seemed remarkably timely, coinciding as it did with BoJo announcing his intention to return to Parliament. Now, it’s at best reactive, and competing with a sea of far more penetrating editorials about the likelihood and reality of everyone’s favourite accident-prone chap actually running the country.

Kingmaker is still atop its soapbox, but frantically and fatally jockeying for position.

Khan and Salinsky’s central argument, conveyed in a slow-drip comedy roast that sometimes forgoes comedy in favour of wild melodrama, is that Johnson’s much-admired authenticity is actually a cynically crafted shell, gaffes and pratfalls deployed with consummate skill in order to conceal cold ambition. It’s a theory unlikely to stun anyone, particularly if they happened to catch Michael Cockerell’s Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise on BBC2 last year.

Kingmaker, St James TheatreKingmaker poses a (now all-too-believable) future scenario: Max Newman (Alan Cox, right), popular Mayor of London turned Tory MP, is comfortable frontrunner in the leadership election and thus a few days away from claiming Number 10. In order to avoid “doing a Gordon Brown”, he’s covertly encouraged support for an unthreatening rival, naïve young gun Dan Regan (Laurence Dobiesz), a plot rumbled by Chief Whip Eleanor Hopkirk (Joanna Bending) during a tense rendezvous in an abandoned basement office. Eleanor has an alternative: force Max out of the race, and control Dan instead.

The observation that the electorate is essentially disenfranchised by such behind-the-scenes skulduggery is certainly chilling, but it’s made with greater finesse in the British House of Cards and with more style in the American version. Worse, Hannah Eidinow’s intimate production shifts gear with an audible creak as Kingmaker unwisely attempts clichéd revenge thriller, with Eleanor pulling an Inigo Montoya by dredging up family tragedy. It reduces an initially savvy female character to shrill emotional wreck and robs Max of a creditable antagonist.

Nevertheless, there’s fun to be had with Cox’s uncanny impersonation of the rumpled, roguish “teddy bear crossed with a serial killer”, landing just the right side of live-action Spitting Image. His cool demonstration of exactly how to manipulate the media shows the Machiavelli beneath the Tigger, and there are good – if not exactly startling – points here about transactional politics, insidious spin and gender double standards. Bending is at her best skewering Max’s “box of tricks”, including his patented bumbling, pivoting and “little boy lost” look, while Dobiesz brings effective peevish pique to a fairly thankless stooge role. 

All three characters could do with further development; though a few gems emerge, they’re mostly revealed via exposition-heavy monologues and reported events rather than interaction. Khan and Salinsky’s sardonic, occasionally incisive writing does suggest a talent for responding to contemporary events, and, with a swift redraft, Kingmaker could make a vital dramatic contribution to the current debate. As it is, the play merely summarises news rather than creating headlines of its own.

  • Kingmaker is at St James Theatre until 27 September
‘Kingmaker’ shifts gear with an audible creak as it unwisely attempts clichéd revenge thriller

rating

Editor Rating: 
2
Average: 2 (1 vote)

Explore topics

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters