FringeReview UK 2024
1979
Presented by Sarah Lawrie for Proud Haddock in Association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
Genre: American Theater, Comedic, Drama, Fringe Theatre, Historical, Mainstream Theatre, New Writing, Political, Satire, Short Plays, Theatre
Venue: Finborough Theatre
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
Political history told in Mamet-fast satire, imagined conversations and accurate stats. What could be more thrilling? 82 minutes later you won’t ask why this three-hander is like curing New Year’s hangover with Red Bull, ice, something illegal and a vodka chaser.
Joseph May’s beating-heart-decency wryly twisted, Ian Porter’s blast and bravura and the brilliant chameleon shifts of Samantha Coughlan deliver this gem of a political wake-up in another election year, where the stripes of political distinction are, like Canada in 1979, the faintest shades of grey.
Written by Michael Healey, Directed by Jimmy Walters, Set and Costume Designer Mim Houghton, Lighting Designer Mark Dymock, Sound Designer Laura Alyousif, Assistant Director Bella Tyler, Co-Producer Sarah Lawrie
Stage Manager Phoebe Francis and Production Manager Daniel Steward
Props Supervisor Deb Waters, Scenic artist Libby Monroe Photographer Hannah Patterson, Artwork Arsalan Sattari, Trailer Robert Boulton, PR Kate Morley PR
General Manager Ellie Renfrew and Caitlin Carr, ASM Maddy D-Houston.
Till January 27th
Review
Michael Healey’s one of the most acclaimed but (in the UK) under-exposed middle-generation Canadian dramatists. Under-exposed that is except for the Finborough, who, in the European premiere of his 2017 play 1979 directed by Jimmy Walters continue their championing of Canadian dramatists. They presented Healey’s Proud in 2016, The Drawer Boy (2012), and Generous in 2009 and again in 2010.
Political history told in Mamet-fast satire, imagined conversations and accurate stats. What could be more thrilling? 82 minutes later you won’t ask why this three-hander (Samantha Coughlan, Joseph May, Ian Porter) is like curing New Year’s hangover with Red Bull, ice, something illegal and a vodka chaser.
We’re luckier than Canada, because we don’t know what happens, nor the twist at the end, a compelling, adroitly managed coup. Even if we read the helpful programme. Above Mim Houghton’s wood-panelled and PM/downbeat presidential-style set (and flag), Mark Dymock’s lighting projects a black-and-white video context.
It’s vital and wittily upstages action below. At the start it’s blink and you’ll either miss it, as it goes a jump too quickly, or you might be distracted from the acting. It settles down, but could slow down.
And that’s nothing to the headbanging pop music the PM tries to drown all conversation with, as Laura Alyousif’s sound literally shouts down turbo-hectoring finance minister John Crosbie (Ian Porter) in full bellow and charge for the hidden remote which he pounces on and then finds it’s snatched back. Clark doesn’t want to hear it from him.
1979 means Thatcher to the UK, and indeed the importance of that election emerges with one character at the end. The Canadian election – held a month after – sweeps youngest-ever PM (at 39) Joe Clark’s (Joseph May) Progressive Conservatives (PC) to a less impressive government, six shy of a majority and way below the popular vote: there, the Liberals remain the natural party of government, except for one much later blip.
Clark’s mild Ted Heath-like party has snatched Liberal Pierre Trudeau’s hegemony from him. Hegemony. We’ll hear a lot more about that. Clark’s and Crosbie’s budget, partly Liberal and otherwise milk-and-water small C, is about to get voted down. Solution: you make up the rules, delay the vote.
Clark though astonishes everyone: it’s dishonest. He will hold the vote, and the government will go down. Clark’s erudite. As the last great character, intern Stephen Harper (Coughlan) tells him, he chooses policy over politics. May’s intelligently-inflected tunnel vision is both winning and hilarious, exquisitely downplaying to contrast with the vivid characters he’s assaulted by.
May’s Clark is on-stage all the time, mainly duets with Coughlan and Porter, with witty gender-fluidity: indeed one character, parliamentary secretary Flora MacDonald is shared by both actors. Clark’s buffeted by everyone in turn. Porter’s Thick-Of-It bully Crosbie, even more suave Trudeau, Porter’s core part.
Trudeau’s the consummate once-and-future king of Canadian politics. Resigning temporarily from the Liberal leadership, even he doesn’t want the government to fall just yet. Smart as he is, Clark can’t comprehend why Trudeau – daily briefed by him personally on the six Americans pretending to be Canadians in the Iran Hostage crisis – attacks him in parliament. “It’s politics Joe” and politics is what Clark can’t stand. Porter’s magnificent here, purring with latent kingship like a giant Cheshire cat.
The mid-point of this drama is further bolstered by Coughlan’s Maureen McTeer, Clark’s wife retaining her surname (something endorsed by the Queen Mother no less!). Just 27 qualifying as a lawyer she plays a blinder, arguing like a lawyer quite brilliantly for pragmatism. But she’s not a lawyer for nothing, even as they wildly embrace. It’s one of the two coups of the evening.
After a brief bear-like flurry of previous PC leader Brian Mulroney (soon off to be an iron magnate) Coughlan returns as Harper. It’s a masterclass. This hesitant “never spoken about this before to anyone” intern then grows visibly in stature in Coughlan’s hands, commanding Clark to forget the negatives from devolution-hungry Quebec and embrace his western Canadian hinterland, pulling out every proto-Thatcher rulebook and citing how that can keep you in power for decades, predicting Thatcher.
It’s a great wrong-way telescope on British politics and its influence. It’s compelling, unsettling and a thrilling finish too interrupted only by Porter’s anxious Jenni Byrne. There’s a 2008 postlude.
May’s beating-heart-decency wryly twisted, Porter’s blast and bravura and the brilliant chameleon shifts of Coughlan deliver this gem of a political wake-up in another election year, where the stripes of political distinction are, like Canada in 1979, the faintest shades of grey.
