No Expense Spared

Synopsis

A farcical look at the expenses scandal - which includes the infamous 'duck island' revelation which leaded to criminal charges being brought against four MPs.

Our Review:

Theo Bosanquet - 26 May 2010

This is a rather strange creation - watching it, you'd never believe that it's technically the most up-to-date political satire in London.

Joe McGann plays a generic recently elected Tory minister (we assume he's Tory, though it's never made explicit) who is setting up camp in his newly-acquired ministerial residence.

But there are skeletons in the closets and expenses receipts in the vases, as an unlikely series of events conspire to make his first day in office potentially his last. All around him, a cast of characters from the Wildean Lady June (Joanna McCallum) to the cockney song-spouting housekeeper 'Barrett' (Lisa Armytage), contribute in varying ways to a set-up that falls somewhere between Yes, Minister and Sailor, Beware!

Richard Stirling's script is peppered with puns - talks over a sewage workers' strike are “stagnating” - but fails to ring even a faint bell of truth. Perhaps that isn't the point, but when a play s...

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Latest User Review

ajh - 14 June 2010:

An absolute stinker! Connoisseurs of theatrical disasters should head to Jermyn Street where a (fairly) high profile cast are struggling with a "comedy" (though it raised barely a titter at the performance I witnessed) that should never have made it past the photocopier let alone onto the stage. Woefully unfunny, and completely implausible, this doesn't know if it's satire or farce....yet it exerts a ghoulish fascination. I couldn't wait to get back after the interval to see how bad it could get. Susan Kyd and Joanna McCallum deserve a mention for genuinely delivering spirited, professional performances in the face of almost insuperable odds (the script, the direction, the rest of the cast, the dozing audience....), and one can but hope they move on to something more worthwhile soon. Shocking....

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