Dark political satire: an impressive performance and piercing comedy
The scene is set: a tired, messy, red rosette studded office, with a bottle of white wine sitting on the table, shortly to be opened. I hope it isn’t too warm. Regardless, the wine diminishes as the play progresses. Our Labour MP Craig Kitman (Benjamin May) appears, a relic of his party’s triumph following the 2024 Labour landslide victory. He has an anxiously furrowed brow, a slightly hollow expression and a sloppy tie. His outlook on life matches that of his tie – he is exhausted, both personally and professionally, leading to an alcohol abuse that explains why his tie isn’t neater.
The play is an hour-long monologue, and May doesn’t let up once. It is an absolute tour de force of a performance, with a wonderful mix of astute satire and moments of deep pathos. The writer Tim Dawson creates in Kitman an incisive portrait of a disillusioned MP without any firm convictions, born on a tide of initial optimism, who sinks when it becomes clear that he is lost in a political landscape without a dynamic center. There are some good one-liners about political ineptitude and the relationship between politicians and the press (Kitman amusingly compares the imagined response of different headlines of various news outlets to his bumbling and failures.) The play feels very in tune with the current political climate, down to the crafting of single arrow-like phrases.
May portrays Kitman’s identity crisis and latent self-loathing with nuance. He is both pitiable and at times unlikeable, with his lack of self-accountability and gestures towards misogyny as he fumbles through his associations with different women. He is also intensely lonely, following a divorce from his wife and a mounting disassociation from his work and purpose. The addition of incessant beeps and ringing from his phone, which Kitman at first ignores, is a keen creative choice from director Susan Nickson, creating an ambiance of increasing tension and anxiety. A less astute choice is the moments of blackout – they feel slightly random and detract from the sense of a relentless downward spiral as political scandal looms.
The satirical prowess of this play is without a doubt – but it felt that, like the political moment of the party it mirrors, it lacked a clear center. Kitman’s deep and tragic lack of connection to people or purpose goes beyond political satire and isn’t fully realized in the play. We see moments of vulnerability that hover on the edge of real confrontation of the human cost of the political system today, both for those within it and outside of it. That being said, the play delivers an hour of dark satire that will entertain and tease deeper questions.
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Author: Tatiana Gilfillan