A fast-paced comedy, Coalition brilliantly charts the downfall of a duplicitous Liberal Democrat leader who betrays his party’s principles to share power with the Conservatives – now where have we heard that before?
In the tradition of popular satires Yes Minister and The Thick of It, Coalition relies on its well crafted, whip-quick dialogue and comedy talent, but perhaps a little too heavily. The production is kinetic and captures effectively the break-neck speed of modern politics. If the play fell down on any count it was that some actors, more used to the stand-up circuit, were simply delivering jokes; this was somewhat at odds with more studied character performances given by other members of the cast.
Nevertheless the story is an engaging one. It’s 2014 and Matt Cooper, the beleaguered Lib Dem leader, is fighting fires. Switching between phone calls from three possible defectors, he is promising them all policy commissions. Having got rid of them he declares: “Maximum wage? Where do we get these f**kers from?”
It is the unravelling of Matt Cooper, expertly played by Thom Tuck, which provides much of the humour as his morals slip away like Lib Dem polling points. This reaches its climax in an encounter with one of the party’s stalwarts who is unhappy with his new energy policy.
“You’re quoting from something?” asks Matt Cooper. “Our last manifesto you moron,” replies energy secretary Geoffrey Webb (Alistair Barrie).
The play, which first showed in Edinburgh last year, is the brainchild of Islington Labour councillor Robert Khan and his university friend Tom Salinsky, the artistic director of improvisation group the Spontaneity Shop.
Some lines are cheap political points: “Did you know he joined every student political organisation at university?” But the audience love it and a list of members of the Cambridge University Conservative Association from the 1980s does in fact feature an N. Clegg.
Phill Jupitus plays Tory special advisor the Right Honorable Sir Francis Whitford, a flamboyant character besuited with a silk handkerchief. His caricature jars with the more understated performances but he does get some good lines. He refers to the Tories’ willingness to ditch leaders: “When it comes to bedtime reading we Tories have always preferred Macbeth to Hamlet.”
But it was Jo Caulfield’s steely chief whip who stole the show. Her world-weary exterior disguises a steely political machine, which Cooper overlooks at his peril. Whoever thought that the Liberal Democrat constitution could lead to such a dramatic turn of events?
Coalition is a bit of fun but there are some salient observations about the current political climate. A suitably vapid PR analyst brought in to help the beleaguered party is brilliantly played by John Dorney, who also doubles up as a manic depressive by-election candidate.
He tells Matt Cooper that he still has the support of ordinary party members. This group is often overlooked by national political parties but if Eastleigh told us anything it’s that local party structures matter.
The Conservative prime minister, who appears at the show’s end, observes that the electorate always get exactly what they want. In 2010 they wanted to get rid of Labour but did not trust his party enough to give them an outright majority.
We bid farewell to the cast on the eve of poll in 2015. Khan and Salinsky make no explicit prediction but leave us with a confident Tory leader hoping to be re-elected prime minister – this time with a clear majority.
Coalition is showing at the Pleasance Theatre until 10 March at 7.30pm. Matinee at 3pm on Saturday.
