Ben Brown, who wrote Larkin With Women, is a brave man. His new play tackles the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the principle of a "home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Showing how global strategy and domestic politics intersect with private passions, his play is a riveting study of the complexities of history.
Starting in 1914, Brown shows the British Zionist Chaim Weizmann lobbying for a Jewish homeland. In May 1915, Edwin Montagu, a Jewish cabinet minister firmly opposed to the idea, loses his seat in government when he marries Venetia Stanley. His brusque dismissal seems an act of retaliation by the PM, Herbert Asquith, who is romantically obsessed with Stanley. And, by the time Montagu returns to the cabinet in 1917, the Zionist proposal has gathered an unstoppable momentum. Lloyd George favours it to further Britain's strategic interests, and Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, believes that providing a home for Europe's persecuted Jews will diminish antisemitism. Only Montagu and Lord Curzon warn that the decision represents "a poisoned chalice".
Pascal once suggested that if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the history of the world would have been changed. There are times when Brown similarly implies that if Venetia Stanley had been less beautiful, and Montagu stayed in government, the Zionist dream would have been blocked. Although that is fanciful speculation, the play's strength lies in its capacity to give equal weight to fiercely opposing arguments. Brown allows his characters to present the case of a Jewish homeland while reminding us that it represented a betrayal of a British promise of an independent state made to the Arabs in 1915. This is historical drama at its dialectical best.
Until 20 March. Box office: 020-8940 3633.
