Yes, Prime Minister

‘Yes, Prime Minister’ was written by the original TV series’ scriptwriters, Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. It is now thirty years since the TV series first put fear into the politicians as their tricks were exposed. Seen in 84 countries, the programme has won 4 BAFTAs and even an American comedy award.

This uproarious presentation is travelling the world, with an itinerary of some 1200 performances. It is showing at His Majesty’s Theatre, Hay Street, Perth until Saturday, 9^th June, with a final matinee on Sunday, 10^th June at 3.00 pm. It looks as though it could already be a sell-out season.

       The audience are greeted by a fabulously, palatial set (designer Shaun Gurton). It is the high, oak panelled office of the Prime Minister, Jim Hacker (Mark Owen-Taylor). The high windows are stained glass, and the walls are covered with gold-framed, oil paintings by the Masters. The PM is in his country retreat of Chequers.

       The poor PM has found himself in a hung parliament, with all of the usual resultant problems such as a financial crisis and global warming. To add to the woe he finds out that some of his staff are illegal immigrants.

       As suggested by his manipulative Cabinet Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby (Philip Quast - brilliant), he could save the country by borrowing money from an overseas power, in a deal being offered by the Kumranistan Ambassador (Alex Menglet) – but the money would come with some severe conditions. The PM’s unfortunate and ill-fated assistant, Bernard (John Lloyd Fillingham) tries to warn the PM of the risks, but just never quite gets up the nerve. Luckily, another aide, Claire Sutton (Caroline Craig) is around to help make suggestions that could save the PM’s skin.

        When the PM feels that things aren’t quite as smooth with the Press and TV as they could be, he invites the BBC Director General (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) to call around for friendly chat.

Despite the large number of performances, the play was fresh and alive with all the hilarious punch of the original. The TV shows were half an hour, at two hours the very clever, richly constructed script – which was very much up-to-date with its storylines – could have been a little heavy, but Bernard has been ‘transformed’ into a highly intelligent, but somewhat neurotic twitching mass; this gave great relief to the dialogue and added greatly to the comedy style, a clever move by ‘WA’s own’ director, Tom Gutteridge, who is now the Artistic Director of the ‘Union House Theatre’ at the University of Melbourne.

Sir Humphrey, to the joy of the audience, came out with a couple of his unique, tongue-twisting speeches, designed to confuse those around. The delivery and general demeanour of the script is perfect by this very strong cast.

Don’t worry if you are an aficionado of the programme, thinking that only the original cast can carry out the humour, here are a team that within seconds will take you into that confused and naïve world of the PM, delivering their lines with full skill and humour. Highly recommended.