McGrotty & Ludmilla

For what does it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Is a question asked in the bible, and the answer – at least in Gregor Shanks’ production of Alasdair Gray‘s satire of Thatcherite Britain, McGrotty & Ludmilla, is, it depends on how attached you were to it in the first place.

Following the fortunes of civil service apparatchik Mungo McGrotty (Marco Biagi) this retelling of the classic Aladdin story is set within a Machiavellian Westminster, during Thatcher’s reign, and sees our hero go from pawn to power over the course of the two acts when his wishes are granted, not by a magic lamp, but by an incendiary secret report.

HATS latest production isn’t the most biting satire. In fact, even by the heavy handed standard of the anti-Thatcher polemics of the 80s, it was slim, but Gray put in enough witty barbs and strong characters to make it a slight but enjoyable piece of theatre.

The performances overall were good, however there was a little too much gurning and attempting to hit every line for laughs, particularly in the slow first half. Biagi in his first role for the company grew with the part and was particularly impressive in the later scenes where he got the balance of arrogance and insecurity just right. Simon Eilbeck as the scheming Sir Arthur Shotts had great fun in his Terry Thomas like role and Claire Bennett was the perfect, ambitious Sloane as Ludmilla.

By using Gray’s name so freely in the publicity, the audience might have expected something with more savagery, but McGrotty & Ludmilla served as entertainment in its own right, and was a perfectly enjoyable way to spend an evening. Produced at a time when public interest and involvement in politics has resurfaced, this is an interesting historical document with some strong points, though not as many as HATS might think, to make about our current state of affairs.  However, the central theme of the peice remains true regardless of time: the faster you climb the greasy pole, the dirtier you get.