A Walk On Part, Soho Downstairs

Love or loathe him, Tony Blair was never less than compelling on both the domestic and international stage. Lurking on the periphery of political recognition, Chris Mullin, MP for Sunderland South, found himself alternately seduced and repelled by his leader; constantly torn between hunger for high office and an instinct to run for the hills. His diaries make good reading.

Cruel Brittainia

A Walk on Part is Michael Chaplin's adaptation of Mullin's observations . It chronicles Labour's greatest years. Mullin himself fell from grace when he voted against the Iraq war, but recovered to win plaudits for his work on Africa. Too much of a maverick to make it to the top he wisely, one deduces, opted out before the Cameron years. That journey is portrayed elegantly by John Hodgkinson as Mullin, with a support cast of four expertly playing 98 parts including Blair, Brown, Prescott, Cook, Straw, Cherie Booth and Glenda Jackson. 

There are no surprises in this narration, but there is humour and hubris and the opportunity to re-evalauate the huge dramas through which the Blair (and later, Brown) government led us including an illegal war, terrorist attacks and the collapse of the banking system as we knew it. It is a timely reminder of the rot at the heart of the British political system: how much have things changed?  

In conclusion: A riveting couple of hours for anyone interested in the smoke and mirrors of politics. Soho Downstairs is set out as a club with the audience sitting at tables. If you get backache from bad chairs, take precautions beforehand.

References
Soho Theatre, Tickets