Yes, Prime Minister presented by the Centenary Theatre Group
Directed by Michael Lawrence
CTG Theatre, Chelmer
6th-27th March 2021
Dr Gemma Regan
Michael Lawrence was a rival for any sesquipedalian orator!
With the present political chaos in the UK caused by Brexit, the ‘unruly’ Royal family and the bumbled handling of the Coronavirus pandemic forcing the country into lockdown for over a year, politics couldn’t be more interesting. The Centenary Theatre Group’s (CTG) Yes, Prime Minister takes an anachronistic look to 2000, when politics was much simpler and the current prime minister was not expected to know the price of a Gregg’s sausage roll! Then, high unemployment and spiralling debt were all a Prime Minister had to worry about.
The main characters are based on the 1980’s popular BBC TV satirical sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, with the bumbling Jim Hacker (Gary Kilger) as the Prime Minister and the verbose Sir Humphrey Appleby (Michael Lawrence) as his conniving Cabinet Secretary. Bernard Woolley played dutifully by Mark Scott is Hacker's overworked personal secretary. Similar to their TV roles there is constant friction and a battle of wits between top dog Jim Hacker and his civil servant Sir Humphrey, as they scheme and manipulate the truth to suit their agendas. As Hacker despairs of his position and considers resignation, news of a potential trillion-pound deal with the oil-laden Kumranistan becomes Hacker’s only hope but as often in life, things do not go as smoothly as they should.
The setting is the dated Prime Minister’s office in Number 10. With a desk laden with red files and a heaving drinks cabinet. Gary Kilger (Vicar of Dibley, Dad’s Army) plays a more absent-minded version of Jim Hacker than the TV version Paul Eddington, using long pauses and stumbling sentences to portray a stressed and naive man. However, he comes to the fore when cornered and double-crossed by the loquacious Sir Appleby. Director and Michael Lawrence (Ring Around the Moon) as director and Sir Appleby, recaptures his smarmy arrogant character with aplomb faultlessly delivering speeches to rival any sesquipedalian orator. The TV actor Nigel Hawthorn won the BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance four times in a row and Michael did a fantastic job of emulating the articulate dialogue.
Georgina Mannion as Claire, is a credible new character bringing a touch of feminine wiles into the plot and Mark Jeffrey is the hard-nosed Director General of the BBC and also plays a hack who interviews the Prime Minister. The confusing character of the Ambassador for Kumranistan was played by Hugo Foong in his first acting role, as an old Uni. friend of Sir Appleby.
Yes, Prime Minister will enthral poms and Aussies alike who are familiar with the TV show. It was punctuated with satirical humorous one-liners mostly involving Sir Appleby’s conniving manipulation of Jim Hacker such as “horizontal diplomacy” and a “rat can leak, but you can’t leak a rat”. The opportunity to slip in a few nods to the present state of the UK was missed and would have nicely linked the aged political humour with the present political turmoil caused by Brexit. But as they said in the play “we’re politicians, we’re not here to do what’s right!”