FringeReview UK 2026
In the Print
The Spontaneity Shop, Jason Smith, Keith Johnston, Luminous Entertainment Group in Association with King’s Head Theatre Productions
Venue: King’s Head Theatre Downstairs
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
There was a point when Rupert Murdoch, the Republican who can’t abide other kings than himself was in more danger than history or he care to admit. And from the first woman elected as head of a union: Brenda Dean. Robert Khan’s and Tom Salinsky’s In the Print premieres at the King’s Head Theatre directed by Josh Roche running till May 3.
Sheerly theatrical, superbly performed; as one man gains a choke-hold and one woman can see how it might just be stopped. Unmissable.
Review
“I’m a simple man… I just want to print papers” Rupert Murdoch repeats his simple mantra. Though underwriting that it shouldn’t be a spoiler to note his final version is: “I want to make the world a better place.” There was a point though when this Republican who can’t abide other kings than himself was in more danger than history or he care to admit. And from the first woman elected as head of a union: Brenda Dean. Robert Khan’s and Tom Salinsky’s In the Print premieres at the King’s Head Theatre directed by Josh Roche running till May 3.
Less than a year after the writers’ Gang of Three which premiered here last May, comes a much less comfortable, edgier play around the Wapping dispute of 1985-86. The powerful printers’ union SOGAT are set to become obsolete. Gone are the library walls. Paint splatters and work-coats are the only decoration and characters circle each other.
It’s not just Khan and Salinsky who are even-handed. The printing profession was centred on ancient hot-metal and plate practises, which continually broke down. And the workforce, knowing thay no-one bought yesterday’s newspapers, were always poised to strike. Result: they were highly paid, worked favourable if un-socical hours in a still dirty job, and invented ingeious scams with aliases. Not that the corporate rich do anything of the kind.
Nevertheless Brenda Dean had already seen the future of computers and a digital print revolution in Manchester, and wasn’t by any mean averse to change: or to be reasonable about the inevitable layoff of some staff, and massive retraining. But then she was entering the fray in 1985: when government and business were intent on smashing unions just for revenge, and with Murdoch someone whose only principle was and is power. We’re more familiar with that now. In 1985 it came as a culture shock.
Leading SOGAT, (Society of Graphic and Allied Trades), Brenda Dean (Claudia Jolly) strikes both warmth and poise as the Lancashire-born unionist since she was 16: and noted her father wasn’t getting his dues. Ever since then, when she was asked to check his friends’ pay packets for accuracy, Dean has been fighting just such corruption and scorn. But what of someone who never even bothers to check, let alone stop to remove small sums? Someone who can plot and execute the sacking of an entire workforce before they can even vote to strike? More, Dean has to persuade other unions, more intent on fighting each other: a sister union the NGA, the journalists who scorn the printers since they never came to support their strike, and the electricians’ union: and there indeed might lie the shock.
Rupert Murdoch (Alan Cox) snarls and stamps presence. Though happily, unlike James Graham’s Ink. Murdoch’s not the epicentre: merely the whirlpool. The writers have drawn a more adversarial, less rounded character here, but with Cox there’s a pulsing presence and pounce. He and Jolly swivel round each other like chess masters, though Murdoch as ever is playing a four dimensional one behind Dean’s back. Indeed if Dean is the one Murdoch can’t get rid of, everyone else is a different matter. Cox brings a nuance not only to each underling, but a tonal flick once one has left the room. Murdoch though is leveraged to the hilt after creating Fox News: Dean knows it. His empire might crash.
As Union lawyer Joan Harrison – and various undercover women employees leaking information – Georgia Landers moves from warning RP through oppressed but courageous women. Ones likely to lose their jobs. Landers exudes someone whose decency struggles through lawyers’ robes, warning of a new landscape of Thatcher-proscribed union legislation. As treacherous electrician union leader Eric Hammond and suave right-wing journalist Andrew Neil, Alasdair Harvey relishes the Machiavel: but even the closest allies of 30 years standing are all expendable. It’s irresistible for Khan and Salinsky to portray Murdoch as Richard III.
Jonathan Jaynes – also fight director – is Dean’s truculent deputy from the stone age, Bill Sargent. Jaynes excels in a visible wrench as he comes round to Dean’s thinking, warmly admires her but is in for a shock. As Kelvin McKenzie, Russell Bentley scorches his consonants with snorts, contrasting Harvey’s more elegant scorn. He’s also the Australian Barry, with Murdoch since 1954. And finally Dean’s equivocal ally Tony Dubbins, leader of sister union NGA.
In contrast with last year’s luxury library, Pelyao Wang’s set consists of paint thrown up a wall with pegs for jackets, some chairs, lit by Joshua Gadsby invoking relentless neon interiors; and an imaginary of industry: Sarah Spencer’s sound whirrs presses to the clangour of strikes.
Jolly gleams as she deals with each man. Edgy rapport with Jaynes’ Sargent, her steely way with Cox’s Red Rupert, warmly shrewd exchanges with Landers’ Harrison – one of few moments of repose – render this a sinewy taut experience over 90 minutes. Unlike Gang of Three last year, there’s no plush urbanity and light humour. Here characters circle a naked stage, eyeballing, challenging. It’s a stripped-back bull-ring, made for men but won sometimes by women. There’s one shocking fight-scene, extraordinary breaks for the strikers, rapprochements and intransigent practices.
The twists and offers Murdoch makes – including donating a plant of traditional machinery for the union to create its own press – is layered like Russian dolls: with a miniature collapsible trapdoor attached to each. Dean makes a decision after one unannounced visit to return a call on Murdoch. The denouement and what happens to the protagonists is followed by the remarkable meeting itself. It’s noted that though translated to the Lords, Dean was surprisingly never called on by Blair or Brown to participate in any Labour government. She sat on quangos. That could be a tribute: Murdoch’s vassal Blair might have been warned off doing any such thing. If so, it’s the best back-handed tribute to Dean that she might have wished.
Absorbing, darkly thrilling, this isn’t just a key moment of history: one that imprinted the UK’s future as Murdoch dictated it to prime ministers; and unions lost power. It’s sheerly theatrical, superbly performed; as one man gains a choke-hold and one woman can see how it might just be stopped. Unmissable.
Casting Director Harry Gilbert, DSM Helen Parkin-Moore, Stage Manager Bethany Fulcher, Costume Supervisor Florence Lindo, Dialect Coach Simon Money, Production management Adam Jeffreys, Press David burns, Marketing Cup of Ambition, Fight Director Jonathan Jaynes, Graphic design Laura Whitehouse, Artwork Photography Steve Ullathorne, Artwork Makeup Artist Francesca Phillips, Artwork Hair stylist Emma Grant, Production Photos Charlie Flint, Production Trailer Erica Belton at Pip Films, Rehearsal Space The Union Theatre, Set Construction SAS Works, Production Accounts Above Title Finance, Insurance Gordon & Co, General Management James Quaife for Luminous Entertainment Group.
