A review of “The Last Temptation Of Boris”
The Park Theatre in London’s Finsbury Park is a small venue but puts on some interesting plays. This week, I went to see the deeply satirical play “The Last Temptation Of Boris” written by Jonathan Maitland and starring Will Barton in the eponymous role with most of the other actors playing more than one character.
The first half is a dinner party in 2016 when Michael Gove pressed Boris to decide whether he was going to support Leave or Remain in the imminent referendum on British membership of the European Union. The second half jumps forward to 2029 when (spoiler alert!) we have had a decade of Brexit but Boris has still not managed to become leader of the Conservative Party.
The first segment actually happened, whereas the second is the stuff of dreams or nightmares, depending on your point of view. The ghosts of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair visit each half of the play.
Maitland provides amusement in every line of dialogue although some jokes are much funnier than others. Even though the play had been running a couple of weeks by the time I saw it, it could not be more topical.
The Conservative leadership election has just started with Boris as the favourite. The court case about the £350M lie was announced the day I attended the play and that evening’s performance even managed to pick up a reference to the event which provided one of the loudest laughs of the night.