Available at NFT Mediatheque-wish was on DVD! I write as someone politically closer to Major Rolfe who was rather amused by edgar's nicking some of the NF
characters' dialogue from real NF members.
2 Reviews
Compelling
Adrian Sweeney21 July 2018
In the early 70s in Britain race becomes an issue in a by-election and a far-right party starts to gain ground. This is superb. It ought to be revived as a stage play and would certainly be timely. Everything it touches on is still (or again) true or more so today. Perhaps the biggest change is that we don't have plays as good as this on TV any more. Its depiction of back-room squabbles and shenanigans in the Labour, Tory and National Front-equivalent parties is so good I suspect the writer of not merely having done homework but of having spent time journalistically 'embedded' with all three.
All the acting is good; Nigel Hawthorne as the sinister but tragedy-touched and by-his-lights virtuous Rolfe narrowly steals the prize. The speech is down-to-earth but heightened at times - what I think Arthur Miller called 'emergency language', prose-poetic soliloquies forced out by desperation - almost everyone gets at least one barn-storming aria and makes the most of it. And with the possible exception of the fascist party leader, we are able to sympathize with everyone and see their point of view, including an idealistic speech-writer for the far-right party and the ordinary men and women who have been drawn to them out of a feeling of betrayal. The play is honest about the negative impact of immigration and globalisation on the working and lower-middle class and sharply depicts the effects of decline from imperial splendour on the classes above them. If a teacher might show this play to a class-room to warn about the far right, a member of the far right might also show it to their mainstream friends to explain where they're coming from. Perhaps the most poignant line comes from an ordinary former Tory woman who's defected to them: 'I just want a reason to have children.'
This isn't from anything as dull as a dutiful sense of balance - although what I wouldn't give for that to still exist in the British media - but from a basic awareness that drama is the clash of viewpoint. Not only could we not have a TV play as grown-up as this about the far right now - you probably couldn't or wouldn't have one showing a noble liberal Tory candidate as this one does. In fact if a BBC play showed Tory back-room debates now, let alone nationalist party ones, the moderates would be the ones who wanted to sacrifice fewer babies to Satan.
All the acting is good; Nigel Hawthorne as the sinister but tragedy-touched and by-his-lights virtuous Rolfe narrowly steals the prize. The speech is down-to-earth but heightened at times - what I think Arthur Miller called 'emergency language', prose-poetic soliloquies forced out by desperation - almost everyone gets at least one barn-storming aria and makes the most of it. And with the possible exception of the fascist party leader, we are able to sympathize with everyone and see their point of view, including an idealistic speech-writer for the far-right party and the ordinary men and women who have been drawn to them out of a feeling of betrayal. The play is honest about the negative impact of immigration and globalisation on the working and lower-middle class and sharply depicts the effects of decline from imperial splendour on the classes above them. If a teacher might show this play to a class-room to warn about the far right, a member of the far right might also show it to their mainstream friends to explain where they're coming from. Perhaps the most poignant line comes from an ordinary former Tory woman who's defected to them: 'I just want a reason to have children.'
This isn't from anything as dull as a dutiful sense of balance - although what I wouldn't give for that to still exist in the British media - but from a basic awareness that drama is the clash of viewpoint. Not only could we not have a TV play as grown-up as this about the far right now - you probably couldn't or wouldn't have one showing a noble liberal Tory candidate as this one does. In fact if a BBC play showed Tory back-room debates now, let alone nationalist party ones, the moderates would be the ones who wanted to sacrifice fewer babies to Satan.
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