Emma McAlpine heads down to Soho to check out Tom Basden's award-winning political satire.
Before I've even seen Tom Basden's debut play, expectations are running fairly high - after all it won a Fringe First award, it's written by an if.comedy winner and the cast (two of which won 'Best Show' and 'Best Newcomer' at the 2009 Fringe) are a respected bunch on the comedy circuit.
A political satire in the loosest of terms, it centres around five young idealists who decide to form a new political party in a garden shed. They argue over their manifesto, foreign policy ("Are there good or bad muslims in Bradford?") and when they should drink the un-fair trade coffee they bought by mistake. Jonny Sweet plays the overly tactile Jared who chairs the meeting as it's in his mother's garden shed. This effectively makes him 'home secretary' although he clearly has his eye on the position of PM and shines in his role as the posh dimwit of the group. Tim Key plays Duncan who isn't political at all but misunderstood what sort of party he was getting invited to. In fact, none of them really have a clue what they're talking about, but (Duncan aside) they all have very strong ideas about what they think they should represent.
Anna Crilly plays Mel, who is staunchly liberal but 'too annoying to be prime minister', Katy Wix plays Phoebe, the Party Secretary, who thinks they should be called the 'Peace in the Middle East Party' ("What if there's peace?", "then everyone will think it was our idea.") Basden himself plays the stroppy Jones and Nick Mohammed has a short but sweet role as Nathan, a bloke Phoebe 'pulled' on Wedneday night who is more knowledgable than the rest of them put together.
There are no scene changes and it all takes part in the intricately detailed garden shed, set amongst cans of Ronseal and stepladders. Rather like his other notable direction Stefan Golaszweksi Speaks About A Girl He Once Loved, Philip Breen lets Basden's script take centre stage and there are so many funny lines to enjoy that I stop trying to remember any. That said, some of the golden moments occur outside of the dialogue, for example during the highly comic water-pouring episode or when an uncomfortable Duncan gets trapped in the middle of a deafening argument.
PARTY is remarkably apolitical considering its theme and is more about the pretentions of politics than the issues in question. The writing is consistently sharp and the quality of acting is oustanding from Key's honest ignorance to Sweet's pussyfooting leadership. Consider expectations fully met.
PARTY is at the Arts Theatre from Monday 1st March-Saturday 13th March.
Buy tickets here
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Photo credit: Peter Le May
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