The more things change...

‘This House’ at the National takes us back to the Seventies – a time when Britain had a hung parliament, a weak government and was facing a major economic crisis. Sound familiar? Well, in James Graham’s excellent play the parallels are not overdone but we’re clearly meant to see our current malaise reflected in the antics of the Labour and Conservative parties of thirty five years ago.

            The focus is on the Whips – the unsung heroes/villains of the parliamentary system. Chief amongst them as the play opens is the Old Labour Bob Mellish (Phil Daniels) and his canny Deputy Walter Harrison (Reece Dinsdale). Opposing them are the High Tories Humphrey Atkins (Julian Wadham) and Bernard ‘Jack’ Weatherill (an impeccably attired Charles Edwards).

            Things begin a little sluggishly - but understandably - with a lot of exposition about the political situation of 1974 but once past this hurdle the play whips along (no pun intended) through the seemingly endless crises that threatened to bring down the governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan. There is much to enjoy for political geeks and the apolitical alike, and the performances, some of which initially seem rather broad, fit well with the tone of the piece which is at once comic yet oddly respectful of our much-traduced democratic representatives who are depicted for all their foibles as basically decent and honourable. All in all it reminds us that the kind of political horse-trading we’ve seen between the members of the Coalition in recent years is nothing new under the sun but also that  politics was a lot more interesting way back when there were bigger personalities around even amongst the backroom boys and real ideological and cultural differences between the big parties.