The Gang of Three
Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky
Directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward
The Spontaneity Shop
Kings Head Theatre
Star rating: 3
Photograph: Manuel Harlan
It’s quite refreshing to see a grown-up, old fashioned play which depends almost entirely on good writing, words, wit and acting – no actor musos, fancy lighting or theatrical gimmickry. The titular trio are Tony Crossland, Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey slugging it out for power mostly in the late 1970s with one flashback to 1940s Oxford.
Labour prime minister,Harold Wilson needs a new deputy so which of these political giants is to be? In the event, of course, it was none of them. Then comes Wilson’s unexpected resignation but none of them becomes leader either. We then move on to Thatcher’s landslide victory and Jenkins’s decision to found the SDP.
Now, I’m old enough to remember these events (apart from 1940, obviously) with some clarity and it was interesting to watch the play alongside many audience members for whom this all took place before they were born. Yet, much of it remains topical. Jenkins was a passionate European but the Labour Party in general was opposed to British membership. Every mention of it in this play gets a laugh. There are some good lines about trade tariffs too. Nothing is new in politics.
So, in a play of this sort how far do you caricature and how far do you simply develop the character imaginatively? Hywel Morgan gives us a pretty convincing Jenkins – articulate, earnest, exasperated, shrewd and with a very slight stammer. It’s well judged and plausible. As Crossland, Alan Cox is a good foil but, competent as his acting is, the character seem lightweight. Crossland was, actually a formidable politician of whom history would probably have heard a great deal more had he not died at in 1977 when he was only 59. Here we see Crossland trying to seduce Jenkins at Oxford – although that isn’t pivotal – and thereafter goading him self-interestedly as he jockeys for position and power. Jenkins comments on his fine mind but we don’t see much evidence of it in this play.
Then there’s Dennis Healey. Colin Tierney, complete with prosthetic “prawn” eyebrows hams him up the hilt. He gives him a stilted, declamatory quasi-rheotrical speech mode which is funny until it palls. And it doesn’t sound remotely like the Healey I remember delivering the budget in the 1970s. It’s good comedy but somehow that detracts from the seriousness of the play because it’s overdone.
Generally speaking though there’s plenty to like in The Gang of Three – three actors bouncing adeptly off each other, for example and Libby Watson’s floor to ceiling bookshelf set works well for each different room we’re meant to be in. The radio and TV news flashes to cover scene changes are effective too. Despite its flaws, it’s an entertaining 90 minutes of theatre.
