Jo Clifford’s War In America has had a long journey to the stage. The Lyceum commissioned it in 1996, then rejected it for being “too offensive”. Twenty years later, director Susan Worsfold, of Edinburgh Theatres’ talent development arm, the Attic Collective, rediscovered it. Now, like the Old Royal High School which hosts this premiere, it’s time to bring it back into circulation.

The play’s an abstract political drama, set in an unspecified European state, with political factions split by gender fighting for control of the House. The key political players are sociopathic Home Secretary Mr Fox (Andrew Cameron), and “She”, an unnamed female figurehead (Saskia Ashdown). Their cohort of fixers badger lobby fodder Slype (Conor McLeod) to try to swing a key vote, while greybeard Wisden (John Spilsbury) looks on disinterestedly between snoozes in the chamber. Eventually, outside influences bear upon them. America is at war. She’s missing daughter is involved. Wisden has a secret that wakes him from his slumbers.

All these characters are emblematic – strong, and well-drawn, but representations of ideas rather than multi-functional beings. This abstraction exposes politics’ working parts. The play’s less a framework for emotionally connecting with characters, than observing political corrosion in progress. Out goes any visceral engagement with the piece, in comes the intellect.

The Old Royal High was once mooted as a home for the Scottish Parliament, so its oval chamber is perfect for this piece, and the excellent young Attic Collective cast make full use of it. Actors criss-cross the well in the centre of the room, call down from the balcony, or sprawl about the speaker’s chair and clerk’s desk. Slype and Fox use the central bannister as a urinal. She’s sinister staffers Warp and Webb (Kirsty Punton and Ellen Aitken) make the whole room their office.

It’s understandable that some scenes were deemed strong meat for a 1990s Lyceum audience. Fox’s sexual proclivities are not the most wholesome. But after Piggate and Trump’s alleged “golden showers“, fact has topped fiction. Most people’s default assumption is that politicians are into something kinky. When Romanian prostitute Judit (Imogen Reiter) services Fox’s needs, it is still unseemly, but entirely in keeping. Cameron is greasily effective in his role, strutting round slimily in his pants.

The Lyceum would have coped with the politics back in the 1990s, though; they are relatively vanilla. But, just as sexual mores have changed, so too political preoccupations. The territory War In America covers – race, inequality, and in particular, gender – is fought over more vigorously now than in the 1990s. Perhaps the play has found its time.

The twin attractions of a forgotten play in a forgotten venue may be the main selling points of this production, but it measures up enough to warrant a wider revival. The renewed interest has also inspired Clifford to continue her planned pentalogy. By abstracting from time and place, in an almost Orwellian manner, War In America points out fundamental failings of political systems, where Trump parodies and Tory take-downs can only scratch the surface. It might not be entirely precise in its message, but it stirs the mind, and without the distraction of real people, places and parties, it’s possible to consider a bigger, non-partisan question – can government ever be a force for good?