This is an exceptionally clever show. Taking the familiar story of Macbeth and turning it into the equally familiar story of Tony Blair’s rise to fame in the early ‘90s through the art of rap -among other things- is no mean feat. It also helps that the show’s star Charlie Dupré has an uncanny resemblance to our former Prime Minister.
this was a highly entertaining show and no matter what side of the political fence you sit on, you’d be hard pushed not to crack a smile
Replacing the soothsayers with three interfering journalists, Macblair’s catapulting to the top of the Labour party and then the country, much to the chagrin of his rival companion McBrown was executed with a fast-pace wit throughout. After all, there was a lot of subject matter to cover in an hour long show.
The switching of Shakespearean to modern day English was both impressive and entertaining and the rapped debates in parliament were poignant but extremely funny in their delivery. Given Blair’s waning popularity and recent public re-emergence as an ardent remainer, the whole piece seemed very well timed and struck many chords in its diverse and sold-out audience.
The set was limited but worked; the ever changing new headlines helped to move the plot along and accounted for things that would have taken up too much time to explain by the actors. The interval appearance of Cherie Blair were very humorous but could have gone a little further in their characterisations as at times her appearance wasn’t quite dissimilar enough to the actor’s other characters.
For someone who was only ten when Blair rose to prominence, there were patchy areas in my knowledge of how things played out and when performed at such a fast pace, this could be confusing at times. Nevertheless, this was a highly entertaining show and no matter what side of the political fence you sit on, you’d be hard pushed not to crack a smile.
