In the Print
Robert Kahn and Tom Salinsky
Directed by Josh Roche
King’s Head Theatre
Star rating: 3.5
It’s another tight, entertaining, political play from the creators of last year’s Gang of Three. And for many audience members the events of the controversial 1980s move of Robert Murdoch’s News International from the Spanish practices of Fleet Street to the efficiency of Wapping are within living memory. Astonishing as it might seem to younger people, this was an era in which trade unions wielded enormous power and their leaders were household names on a par with cabinet ministers. The Wapping dispute, which of course Murdoch won, was the last great battle.
Brenda Dean (Claudia Jolly) led SOGAT (Society of Graphical and Allied Trades), the first ever woman leader of a trade union. Dean was formidable and her confrontations with Murdoch (Alan Cox) lie at the heart of this play, along with her dealings with other trade union leaders amongst whom there is much self-interest, rivalry and back stabbing. Jolly makes Dean, attractive and personable as she speaks direct to audience, tackles the men who oppose her, deals with her own doubts, fights for justice and jobs and eventually has to compromise. We believe in her integrity. It’s a warmly charismatic, convincing performance.
Cox’s Murdoch, complete with gentle Australian accent, is snake-like in his reasonableness. “I just want to print newspapers” he says with repetitive disingenuity. He and Jolly work pleasingly together and director Josh Roche ensures that everyone makes good use of the square space with seating on three sides. The production also does imaginative things with the two, angled aisles through the audience which gives the piece a sense of inclusive intimacy – because it’s entirely based on conversations. We are never inside a print room.
Four other actors play everyone else in this complex story. Basic costumes – coats and so on – hang on hooks on the back wall to support rapid role change. Alasdair Harvey’s slimy Andrew Neil gets a laugh every time he emerges because, of course, Mr Neil is still very much with us. Joan Harrison excels as dispassionate lawyer Georgia Landers, along with several other contrasting characters. I admired Jonathan Jaynes’s versatility as Bill Sargent and other roles. And Russell Bentley’s gor-blimey Kelvin Mackenzie making ruthless tabloid decisions is hilarious – when he’s not being Murdoch’s put-upon, loyal but ultimately dispensable side-kick.
It’s an interesting, if rather wordy, 90 minute play which ultimately allows you to see every point of view. Of course, the job losses and the effect on families were devastating. On the other hand you can’t run a profitable industry on ancient machinery (the old print presses) in an unsuitable environment (Fleet Street) in which too many people are paid big money for obsolete roles. And, owing perhaps to digital development, all nine national newspapers which dominated the 1980s arguments. have survived, albeit with much reduced circulation. The play neatly sets out the tensions and leaves the audience to choose a side.
