LOOK BEYOND THE LETTUCE
It is a tribute to Greg Wilkinson’s monologue play that I had not beforehand seen the rise and fall of Liz Truss as having a gripping dramatic line. It had appeared like simply the ultimate mad flailings of the age of Boris and Covid, earlier than the Rishi lull: ridiculous, a passing joke, nothing a lot to do with both Britain’s previous or future. But this tightly researched, unexpectedly honest one-woman drama made a distinction.
Emma WIlkinson Wright, first seen silent at her desk as we settle in, is ready for Graham Brady or somebody to return in and ship the anticipated closing chop. She is, rigorously, in look very like the true Liz Truss, neat bob and bodycon costume . She observes as she powders her nostril the necessity all the time to “look good”. The then embarks on an account of her life, assisted by the nimble-voiced Steve Nallon recorded offstage doing a collection of voices: the schoolteacher she defied , the exhilaratingly political Oxford pals, her Westminster allies and, in fact, the ghost of Margaret Thatcher. Who is at first Liz’s inspiration (although apparently, not as a lot as Chancellor Lawson). Thatcher in truth lastly delivers a slightly damning verdict, pitiless on the Truss defeat. She I suppose was robust willed too , tempting to emulate, however cleverer.
What Wilkinson – by the performer – has caught and performed with is the extraordinary self-confidence that fuels this girl, mixed with an actual (and to many people baffling) sense of her thrill on the very means of politics: leafleting, talking, understanding techniques, networking, discovering mentors after which judging them. Her financial concept is all about vitality: wanting to maneuver quick and break issues and face down slowcoaches, orthodoxy and regulation. Fighting fits her greater than quiet thought, and revealing is her virtually girlish adoration for Kwazi Kwarteng – “like an educated Mohammed Ali!”. She strides round, thrilled to rise to be Foreign Secretary, dizzying. Sometimes she breaks into karaoke, as along with her pal “TC” – Therese Coffey. But she just isn’t made ridiculous. Like any glorious actor she attracts us a great distance into herself, uncomfortably. Scraps of her actual speeches – together with the cheese second – are executed from a lectern within the nook, straight. Bits of her concept are banged up on a whiteboard.
Becoming PM ultimately she sacks folks, crying “I can really bloody do this!”. Urged to take her monetary reforms slower she barks “what’s the point of moderation?” and says that it could be like getting her pal “TC” going on the karaoke with only a thimbleful of whisky when what’s vital is a rattling nice pint and a cigar.
But the crux of the story just isn’t her closing downfall – although the gradual onerous realization of what the markets are doing is brilliantly executed, cracks in her steeliness displaying minute after minute, the lettuce joke genuinely upsetting her – “humour is our national religion” she says, with the fury of an apostate. Nallon’s good evocation of the beforehand encouraging voices of her backers – notably Jacob Rees-Mogg – steadily make her perceive what’s occurring: nationwide potential chapter.
That’s all good, however the crux beforehand is the second when the Queen dies, and instantly on the funeral Truiss is plunged into one thing larger than politics, larger than her: nationhood, ritual, one thing run by surefooted courtiers and army, apolitical. She needs to be taught to curtsey by an unseen Rees-Mogg who finally ends up having to exhibit do it. After that there’s something virtually touching about her storming in the direction of “A Budget true and good and beautiful!” and watching it collapse.
It was second-preview I noticed, and I suspected the top can be been tightened (and I now collect that it has, the present inside its pure 90 minutes together with interval). But in that ending there’s a actual warning. Off to America, thrilled by its vitality and extremes, I watched the stage Truss reflecting on Trump, Farage, and the way the important thing to getting a followership when folks really feel hard-up is horribly easy: only a determine a “THEY” because the enemy.
It’s a fairly outstanding couple of hours. Honour to performer, creator, and director Anthony Shrubsall. `Not lengthy left to catch it, however for those who want one thing completely non-Christmassy….
whitebeartheatre.co.uk to 14 December
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