Maggie's End at the Shaw Theatre

Maggie's End at the Shaw Theatre

09 April, 2009
by: Belias

'It's a terrible thing to lose one's memory.' So laments Leon Thomas (Mark Wingett) upon discussing his mother's losing battle with dementia, an affliction that ironically affects the real Margaret Thatcher. This line is central to Maggie's End at the Shaw Theatre, with its themes of death, memory and identity – all in personal and national terms – wrapped inside a biting satire targeted at Thatcherism and New Labour.

Leon is a former union head, political prisoner, and current embittered political lecturer blinded by cynicism, with an activist wife and a New Labour MP daughter. Upon hearing of Thatcher's death at his own mother's funeral, he declares 'This is the happiest day of me life', and the sombre scene turns into one of boisterous celebration. The jubilation is short lived when his daughter delivers the news that a state funeral is in the works, and what follows is a dishevelled mix of blunt comedic one-liners directed mostly at Thatcher, and ideological monologues declaring New Labour as a bastardisation of Thatcherism, and the working class as lazy, spoilt, ideologically vacant, and suffering from political dementia.

Wingett delivered his monologues with confidence, and was the standout of the cast, however his material was at times dangerously close to transforming the stage into a metaphorical soapbox. The lack of reference to current events also seemed a bit peculiar, especially since the theme of activism and political marches is central to the second act. The pertinence of the play's serious ideas is also harmed by the juxtaposition with crass and sometimes juvenile comedy. Though the jokes work more often than not, whether you're able to stomach it all depends far too much on your own political beliefs, and it goes without saying that there would never be a production of Maggie's End by the ‘Tory Theatre Troupe', if such a group were ever to exist.

Maggie's End makes no attempt to hide its left leaning ideals, to the point that even pragmatism comes under fire. Leon's MP daughter is seen as selfish, power hungry, manipulative and lacking any ideals and her boss, the Home Secretary, is seen as hypocritical and incompetent.  It becomes clear that Leon and his family represent the paradigm shift in Labour and the general working class, and as such the play is much more about the death of Labour than it is about Thatcher.

As the antithesis of Labour, Thatcher's physical death sees the end of her as a symbol, a symbol that truly died with Old Labour ideals. For how can Thatcher represent everything that Labour stands against, when the party that defeated her, is so ideologically removed from the party that now stands in power?

Maggie's End is written Ed Waugh & Trevor Wood, and directed by Jack Milner. For upcoming times check Maggie's End here on Spoonfed.

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Belias