http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2008/12/11/pulling-their-hare-out/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:35:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2008/12/11/pulling-their-hare-out/#comment-36777 John Morrison Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:04:34 +0000 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2008/12/11/pulling-their-hare-out/#comment-36777 I spent two years reporting the Blair government and I found large parts of the story of Gethsemane implausible and off-target. Very little of it rang true or offered me anything in the way of a fresh insight into New Labour, and I suspect that most of the political commentators who saw the play felt the same. The subplot about the journalist and the minister's daughter was just too absurd. I can put up with implausible plotting very easily in the theatre if the play really crackles dramatically, and this one just didn't get off the ground, despite good dialogue, acting and characters. When DH sticks close to the facts as in The Permanent Way, he's excellent. When he makes it up, as in Gethsemane, it's a damp squib. Stuff Happens falls somewhere between the two. Funnily enough, I went to the BFI on Tuesday to see the film of DH's early play Knuckle, and that had many of the same plot faults as Gethsemane. It's supposed to be about the City of London but DH doesn't know enough about the City to write it, so the plot revolves around a dodgy property deal in Guildford. I spent two years reporting the Blair government and I found large parts of the story of Gethsemane implausible and off-target. Very little of it rang true or offered me anything in the way of a fresh insight into New Labour, and I suspect that most of the political commentators who saw the play felt the same. The subplot about the journalist and the minister’s daughter was just too absurd. I can put up with implausible plotting very easily in the theatre if the play really crackles dramatically, and this one just didn’t get off the ground, despite good dialogue, acting and characters. When DH sticks close to the facts as in The Permanent Way, he’s excellent. When he makes it up, as in Gethsemane, it’s a damp squib. Stuff Happens falls somewhere between the two. Funnily enough, I went to the BFI on Tuesday to see the film of DH’s early play Knuckle, and that had many of the same plot faults as Gethsemane. It’s supposed to be about the City of London but DH doesn’t know enough about the City to write it, so the plot revolves around a dodgy property deal in Guildford.

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