Kingmaker

EXPOSING THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH

Election season is once again upon us, and this cheeky political satire will ensure some red faces across the river at City Hall! The latest offering from Robert Khan and Tom Salinksy (Coalition, Making the News) received rave reviews at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, and lands at the Arts Theatre just in time for polling day. This three-hander deftly lampoons a certain London mayor as he fights off political challengers from a scheming female Whip, and a seemingly naive young mover coming up through the party ranks.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Alan Cox stars as a certain bouffant-haired London Mayor and exposes the machinations at work behind his buffoonish exterior. Described by his peers as a cross between a teddy bear and a serial killer, Tory MP Max Newman cynically believes that all it would take for him to become PM is to champion cheap food, goods and to tell "ordinary people" that they are brilliant. That - and the fact that he needs parachuting into a safe, recently vacated seat before the next General Election.

Only two people stand in his way; a bright young upstart called Alex Deakin who doesn't present much of a challenge, and a female Whip Eleanor Hopkirk - who has known Newman since their days at Oxford, and deftly negotiates her way around the old boys club at Westminster with Machavellian ease. And she is determined to stop Newman's plans before they even take off.

As Newman works his magic by performing excruciating pratfalls and public blunders galore, Eleanor helps the audience see through the exterior of her opponent, and vows to expose him for the schemer he is.