It is Christmas, sometime in the near future. New Labour have lost a general election and the Conservatives are back in power, led by David Cameron, the bicycling "boy next door". But only just. After six months in office with a tiny majority of three, they have a backbench rebellion in full swing, and a potential leadership challenge is being cooked up in the bars and dining rooms. With Cameron delayed on a visit to the US (the president's golf cart ran over his toe), and a crucial vote in the offing that, if lost, will precipitate a vote of no confidence, it is up to the whips' office to bully, bribe and bludgeon the Tory MPs into turning up and voting with the government. As one of them comments: "Westminster runs the country, but the whips run Westminster."
Transferring from the Bush Theatre, where it premiered last year, Steve Thompson's amiable political satire has plenty of sharp one-liners and offers an easy, amusing evening. It is enlivened by Robert Bathurst's slick deputy chief whip, Alistair; Richard Wilson doing his customary turn as a devious but loveable curmudgeon with an honourable heart; and Helen Schlesinger, cool and sharp, as the opposition chief whip who knows that in every male MP, of whatever political persuasion, there is an overgrown schoolboy waiting to be whipped back into shape.
There's fun to be had, and Thompson and designer Tim Shortall get the minor-public-school atmosphere just right. But this is a mischievous, good-humoured poke rather than a full assault on the culture of lies and dirty tricks that is accepted as normal in Westminster life. Some of the plot twists strain credibility. And, at a time when TV is taking more and more satirical pot-shots at Tony Blair (and hitting the mark), it feels as though Thompson is playing it too safe by taking the easy option and concentrating on the Tories rather than New Labour.
· Until April 28. Box office: 0870 060 6627.
