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Hell Yes I'm Tough Enough review – the far too thick of it

Park theatre, London
Ben Alderton’s bilious satire about the 2015 British general election is spasmodically entertaining but unsubtle

We desperately need political satire, yet now seems an odd time to resurrect, as Ben Alderton’s play does, the run-up to the general election of 2015. His target is clearly a broken political system and the culture of misogyny, mendacity and corruption that accompanies it but, while his comedy is spasmodically entertaining, it is too broad and bilious to carry much conviction.

Alderton himself plays David Carter, prime minister and leader of the Blue party, who is seen as a bullying monster without any of the surface plausibility of his real-life model. The best joke involves his contempt for his coalition partner, Nick Clog, who is treated as a patronised coffee-boy. Meanwhile, Carter’s opposite number in the Red party, Ned Contraband, is a vacillating wimp unsure whether to play the role of a nice guy, as advised by a hippie guru, or a tough hombre, as encouraged by his media strategist. Both Contraband and Carter are part of the boys’ club of British politics but are ultimately controlled by behind-the-scenes women.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UMN7cS
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