It’s often suggested that Boris Johnson’s success as a politician is founded on a carefully constructed persona. His apparent authenticity is simply an act – wheras fictional politician, Michael (Gerald Kyd), who has unexpectedly won his party’s leadership election and finds himself installed mid-term in Downing Street as prime minister, believes that “we are nothing if we are not ourselves”.
Michael’s a man in a hurry with a shopping list for social change, a determination to “get the country back on its feet by Friday” and a blunt honesty in his dealings. That means sacking the chancellor, who opposed him in the leadership contest, and cutting the defence budget, even though that will make him enemies.
But are being yourself and honesty always the best policies when the press don’t just report the news but make it? Perhaps not when you’ve got a troubled teenage daughter, and a wife who has not yet learned that mouthing off about the lack of bedroom space at Number 10 may affect how quickly you implement the new housing bill.
Principles are hard to uphold, and when Michael appoints loutish press secretary Scott (Shaun Mason) it becomes clear that having a rottweiler in the house only makes you more secure if you can control it.
Steve Thompson’s play is mildly diverting, particularly in the encounters between Michael and Amy Marston’s clever, tough-talking tabloid columnist. But it’s not compelling, and it’s hard to believe that a career politician would be quite so naive.
As soon as Michael announces that “honesty is all”, the play’s trajectory is set and it springs no surprises along the way. There aren’t enough laughs for full-on comedy, nor the emotional underpinning for a minor tragedy about a man who discovers nobody believes in a PM who is authentically himself, warts and all.
• Until 2 May, Birmingham Rep. Box office: 0121-236 4455. Then touring.
