There will always be a place in the arts for really good political satire and, this week, that place is on the stage of the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne where our current Prime Minister is on the receiving end of Jonathan Maitland‘s rapier wit in the past, the present and even in the future.
Act one of The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson begins in 2016 where we find ourselves in the Boris’s Islington kitchen. Campaigning for the European referendum has begun and Boris must make his mind up as to which camp he will join. A lot of what happens in the first half is, as they say, history, but the conversations are imagined and dramatic licence is used throughout in order to get us to the point, in 2019, when Boris gets the “top job”.
Although act one has a fair smattering of clever one-liners and plenty of “Yes Minister” style political positioning, giving the audience a chuckle now and then, it is in the imagined future of 2029 where the laughs come more frequently. With references to TV stars who have become Dames and pop stars who are now Lords, Maitland gives us a view of the possibilities that is as funny as it is frightening!
Whether this view of the political situation at the end of the decade is correct or not, seeing Boris taking advice from Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair to assist him in his decision process, as well as his “real life” dealings with Michael Gove, newspaper tycoon Evgeny Lebedev and the women in his life, makes a great advert for never going into politics.
Portraying a current and, dare I say, larger than life character such as Boris must be a very tough task, but it’s one that Will Barton achieves with consummate skill. The look, the mannerisms and the unique way in which he answers questions in interviews are all replicated with an amazing attention to detail and very soon it is easy to believe that it is Boris himself standing before us.
The other cast members play multiple roles with Bill Champion appearing as Winston Churchill, Michael Gove and Boris’s agent, Emma Davies as Margaret Thatcher, Sarah Vine and the Conservative Party Chief Whip and Tim Wallers playing Evgeny Lebedev, Tony Blair and BBC News anchor Huw Edwards. All three of them deliver well rounded characterisations and impersonations and, although Claire Lichie plays the less well known characters of Boris’s two lady friends, Marina Wheeler and Caitlin, and the TV newsroom camera operator, each of her roles is also clearly defined and delivered flawlessly.
As with all satire, it’s success is derived from humour, irony, exaggeration and ridicule and with the political situation as it has been over the last few years, and may well be in the future, Maitland has plenty of ammunition which he has turned into a very amusing and cleverly written piece of contemporary theatre.
**** Four stars