Torben Betts’s most recent play, Invincible, featured Emily, a middle-class socialist whose illusions of solidarity were rudely exposed when her proletarian neighbours proved unable to behave at the dinner table. What Falls Apart introduces Tom, a character who could well be her brother: a salt-of-the-earth, old Labour diehard hoping to recapture his Tyneside constituency in the current general election.
Tom’s campaign is a humiliating slog that mostly involves making craven apologies to former Labour voters disaffected by the Iraq war. After a long day on the hoof, he unwinds in the hotel bar, drinking rather more cognac than seems sensible with a surprisingly articulate barman and an attractive young woman who claims to be attending an academic conference and idolises Tony Benn.
Betts has a knack for exposing the characters’ self-loathing: the barman for his marriage breakup; the woman because – without giving too much of the plot away – she is patently neither an academic nor a devotee of Tony Benn; and Tom, who can barely live with himself for voting in favour of the war. One can sense that Betts wishes to engineer a situation in which the MP is confronted with the direct consequences of that decision. But it demands a level of contrivance that requires you to believe that the female character has a father who fought in the Falklands, a friend who perished in the World Trade Center, and is now held to ransom in a Newcastle hotel room by someone traumatised by their experiences in Iraq.
Max Roberts’ production makes a rather manic transformation from a laconic first half to a slightly hysterical second. But though it’s a valuable addition to the raft of plays inspired by the election, you can’t help feeling that a state-of-the-nation assessment focused on only three characters invariably presents a skewed demographic.
• At Live theatre, Newcastle, until 16 May. Box office: 0191-232 1232.
