Yes, Prime Minister Review

Hi!

Just note, my computer isn't working, so I can't post any blogs really, I am using the other one, and can really only post this review now it's done.

If you don't already know, I am doung Silver Arts Award, and part of that requires me to share a review of a play. So that Is what I shall do. I need you to comment on the review please or email me. Comment if you want my email address.

Sorry, no randomness today.

I'll hope to be back blogging in a week.

Here's the review:

Yes, Prime Minister – Review 23/5/11 Matinee, Lyceum, Sheffield

By Benjamin Jackson

I went, with my family, to see the new adaptation of the TV series “Yes, Prime Minister” at the Lyceum. It was the matinee performance at 3pm and there was an understudy playing a role in the performance. In the play was Simon Williams as Sir Humphrey, Michael Chadwick as Bernard Woolley (although in the programme, Chris Larkin was down to play this role) and Richard McCabe as the Prime Minster.

On arrival at the theatre, I noticed that it was extremely full, and mainly of elderly people, this was fine, although it was a slightly uneasy experience. We found our seat in the Circle (after buying a programme) and sat down. I could tell that I would need to concentrate, but I was still excited.

My first impression of the show was actually about three minutes before it started. It was when the set was revealed. The performance used this one set only throughout the entire production. It was an office room at Chequers. It was a very good and authentic and well made set. Once I saw it I knew that a lot of effort had been put into the production.

Once the play had started, it was quite confusing but I soon got into it. Close to the beginning, Simon Williams played a very good role at “Controlling” the Prime Minister and had a monologue of “interruptions” to stop the PM from having his own ideas (that would be terrible, he might have ended up ruling the country! As Humphrey might say). And I think he did this very well and he had a very good presence about him. Michael Chadwick put a lot of character into his performance, if slightly cheesy, but apparently that character is meant to be cheesy, so I suppose he played that character well, he certainly knew how to add humour. Richard McCabe was my favourite actor in the play. He was a really good all round actor, portrayed things very well and was very funny. There was also Charlotte Lucas, who played Claire Sutton, and although she wasn’t in it as much as the other three, she was still very good.

The overall story was about the fact that the UK was about to make a huge deal with a county called Kumranistan, and amongst other small things, he was staying the night, ready to make the deal in the morning, however, that night, he made an inappropriate request that the Prime Minister would never deem appropriate and never accept, and so the whole question of moral came into the performance, and, the prime minister had to make a decision. Then the Kumranistani ambassador talks to the prime minister and tells him not to have so many double standards, and the theme of the play goes on as such, until they all finally decide not to go ahead with anything, but there’s the small problem that the BBC are waiting to hear the good news, and so in the end, the Prime Minister does some clever interviews to get himself out of the scrape. It was really funny and witty and brought back some ideas from the original television series.

The costume was as you would expect, formal and posh and quite well thought out. There were sound effects of lightning and strobe lightning to show that “God doesn’t want this to happen.” They were very loud and made everyone jump. Also, another clever use of media was when the PM was being interviewed by the BBC and the cameramen had real cameras which showed footage on TV screens around the theatre, in other words, a live camera feed.

Another interesting aspect of the play was that there weren’t that many actors/actresses. I would guess at around 7. There were only two scenes in each of the two acts which were quite long. I think the basic idea was fairly simple, but the content complicated, which was a good mix.

The play was over two hours long, but this was OK. There was an interval of about 20 minutes. The only problem for the overall experience for me was that the woman sat behind me had a really weird laugh and so spoiled the funny bits a bit.

The play did contain a slightly “rude” storyline and had some bad language, but apart from that, I was very impressed and enjoyed it. I would give it 8/10. I would recommend it to anyone who is old enough to understand and doesn’t mind coarse humour and language.

It was an overall really good experience and my complements to the actors and crew who worked really hard.

Benjamin Jackson

Thanks for reading and helping me, I'd appreciate comments!