Robert Tanitch reviews Great Britain at Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London
The National Theatre had a huge success with Richard Bean’s One Man Two Guvnors, which also transferred to Theatre Royal, Haymarket. It will be interesting to see if the National can repeat that success with Bean’s latest comedy, a satire on the corruption of the press, politicians and police.
Nicholas Hytner directs a large cast with great skill and speed. The production, based on the recent tabloid phone-hacking scandal, and rehearsed in secret during the trials, never flags with its constant use of video images on huge sliding screens.
The action is set mainly in a newspaper’s office. The Free Press, a tabloid newspaper, gives the public what it wants – scandal. The paper is run by two ruthless and vulgar editors played by Robert Glenister and Lucy Punch. As the latter explains, “We go out to destroy other people’s lives on your behalf.”
Bean’s satire is in the same cartoon caricature tradition as James Gillray, Honore Daumier, David Low and Gerald Scarfe; though unlikely to be as enduring. Some of the biggest laughs are in the front page headlines and especially those that accuse immigrants of anything and everything.
The funniest character is the Asian Policeman Commissioner. I think we might well be hearing a lot more of Commissioner Sully Kassam, the stupidest policeman since Peter Sellers’s Inspector Clouseau. At a press conference he gives a demonstration to show how harmless lasers are with farcical results.
But it is the really dumb things he says which gets the biggest laughs. Aaron Neil plays him absolutely deadpan straight and is all the funnier for it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if clueless Sully Kassam turned up in a television series or on film.
Richard Bean’s career is on a roll. This year alone, apart from Great Britain, there have been productions of his plays, Toast and Pitcairn. A musical, Made in Dagenham, for which he has written the book, is just about to open.
George S Kaufman famously defined satire as what closes on Saturday night. Bean’s satire is running until 10 January.
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