London.
THATCHERITE
by Jimmy Osborne, Brian Walters, Kay Adshead, Jon Brittain, Matthew Tedfor, Fraser Grace, Ben Worth, Dominic Cavendish, Brad Birch, Dan Rebellato.
Theatre 503 503 Battersea Park Road SW11 3BW To 15 June 2013.
Tue-Sat7.45pm Mat Sat 3pm.;
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7978 7040.
www.theatre503.com
Review: Carole Woddis 11 June 11.
A lot to be said.
We seem to be in an interesting period of political introspection, Marylebone’s Cockpit Theatre offering the multi-voiced Blair’s Children and now Battersea’s fleet-footed Theatre 503 with an early response to the death of Britain’s most controversial post-war leader, Maggie Thatcher.
History may judge her more kindly than some of us who lived through her regime if Thatcherwrite is anything to go by. While Blair’s Children took a largely left-wing perspective, Thatcherwrite considers the human being as much as the political myth, along with her more destructive elements.
In True Blue Daily Telegraph theatre critic Dominic Cavendish has penned an imaginative vision of Mrs T on a desert island, slightly demented, being urged to return by a young Tory. Compromise is order of the day, and predictably, she’ll none of it. Georgina Strawson.s Thatcher Wig and Pearls gets the hectoring tone down to a tee, as does Matthew Tedford in Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho.
Lost one night in Soho, Thatcher becomes a cabaret headline favourite and gay convert. Tedford, in blue suit and shimmering gold lame, brings the house down with this sly, very funny upturning of the anti-gay ‘Clause 28’ legislation enacted under Thatcher.
Judy Upton’s Our House is a convincing dissection of the con that for many became the Right-to-Buy scheme and Ben Worth gives a colourful satire in Suit and Tie, with two Essex wide boys, mouthing obscenities and vicious sexism, encouraged by Thatcher policies to make money, money.
But it is Kay Adhead’s I Am Sad You Are Dead Mrs T which most cleverly encapsulates aspects of the Tory leader. In three parts, we see her appeal to bigoted extremists and today’s smooth right-wing operators before contrasting Thatcher’s comfortable, cared-for demise in her bed at the Ritz with that of a warm-hearted cleaning lady who bit by bit slips through the net and is left to rot by the `society’ whose existence Thatcher refused or was unable to acknowledge.
A fascinating range of voices; full marks to Theatre 503’s Paul Robinson, his Literary Manager Steve Harper et al for responding so quickly and with such dynamism.
Apples (part 1)
by Brian Walters.
Cast: Paul Cawley, Rachel De-lahay, James Cooney.
Director: Audrey Sheffield.
True Blue
by Dominic Cavendish.
Cast: Georgina Strawson, Freddie Capper
Director: Samuel Miller.
I Am Sad You Are Dead Mrs T
by Kay Adshead.
Cast: Jordan Mifsud.
Director: Donnacadh O’Briain.
A Beautiful Friendship
by Brad Birch.
Cast: Cecilia Colby, Christopher Hughes, Jonny McPherson.
Director: Rachel Valentine Smith.
Our House
by Judy Upton and Matt Merritt.
Cast: Rebecca Peyton, Rhys Jennings.
Director: Lisa Cagnacci.
Assistant director: Liam Borrett.
Suit and Tie
by Ben Worth.
Cast: Ben Worth, Andrew Sykes.
Director: Ben Worth.
Apples (part 2)
by Brian Walters.
Am Sad You Are Dead Mrs T
by Kay Adshead
Director: Donnacadh O’Briain.
Cast: Joe Richardson.
My Dinnertimes with Clarence
by Fraser Grace.
Cast: Brett Dawes, Rebecca Naylor.
Director: Gemma Fairlie.
1833
by Jimmy Osborne.
Director: Rebecca Murphy.
Cast: Ryan Lane, Elle McAlpine.
Apples (part 3)
by Brian Walters.
Same director and cast as part 1
I Am Sad You Are Dead Mrs T
by Kay Adshead.
Cast: Bella Heesom.
Director: Donnacadh O’Briain.
Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho
by Jon Brittain And Matthew Tedfor.
Cast: Matthew Tedford, Ed Yelland, Tom Crooke.
Director: Jon Brittain.
Thatchers
by Dan Rebellato.
Cast: Whole Company.
Director: Lisa Cagnacci.
Thatcherwrite ran at Theatre 503, London 11-15 June 2013.
2013-06-12 16:27:03
