This House

Synopsis

1974. The UK faces economic crisis and a hung parliament. In a culture hostile to cooperation, it's a period when votes are won or lost by one, when there are fist fights in the bars and when sick MPs are carried through the lobby to register their vote. Let those on the continent cooperate and hug and kiss each other on the ruddy cheek. Here in Britain, one party governs and we get things done. It's a time when a staggering number of politicians die, and the building creaks under idiosyncrasies and arcane traditions. A minority government? No one with any sense or gumption gives you more than a matter of weeks. You're gonna fall, and fast, and hard. So start finding things to land on. Now. Set in the engine rooms of Westminster, James Graham's This House strips politics down to the practical realities of those behind the scenes: the whips who roll up their sleeves and on occasion bend the rules to shepherd and coerce a diverse chorus of MPs within the Mother of all Parliaments.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 1 March 2013

The great pleasure of This House in the Cottesloe last autumn was taking your seat on green leather benches in the mother of all parliaments for an extended session of political ding dong between party whips, heavyweight fixers and smooth operators.

It was hard to envisage how the peculiar intimacy of the proceedings would survive an Olivier upscale treatment. But James Graham's enjoyable, if slightly unfocussed play, comes up a treat once more in Jeremy Herrin's production, with a radical re-design by Rae Smith and just three changes of cast among the Labour whips.

One side of the debating chamber is on the stage, with two banks of audience members shunted around in the scene changes, so that the audience proper forms ...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

David Jarrett - 30 April 2013:

Visually stunning and captivating play. Completely unmissible if you love politics and lived through the 1970s....

Read more and add your own review