Yes, Prime Minister

The Old Courthouse, Ipswich, which still displays the NSW Coat of Arms, predates separation between Queensland and NSW and is one of the oldest government buildings in Queensland, so it seems entirely appropriate that a play about the machinations of government should grace its hallowed halls.

Yes, Prime Minister was a spin-off of the wildly successful BBC TV series Yes, Minister which was conceived in 1986. The first stage version of it appeared in 2010, has played the West End several times and become a staple on the community theatre circuit. It never dates. As the writers have said, the headlines were the same in 1986 as they were thirty years earlier and as they are today, and what with Britain mired in the Brexit fiasco Yes, Prime Minister seems almost current.

Set in a country manor house, Prime Minister Jim Hacker is battling to survive and needs a trillion pound loan from the oil-rich country Kumransistan. The Kumranistan Foreign Secretary will accede to the request if Hacker provides him three hookers for the night. The problem is, how to do it legally and not get caught in a phone-hacking scandal.

Alan Brown’s production bore the style and feel of the TV series without being the TV series.

Baby-faced Robert Shearer was a blustering, bungling Hacker, who was ready to do anything to stay in office. Whether shouting or hiding under his desk, he wore the ministerial robes with glee. Michael Lawrence as the pompous and verbose Sir Humphrey Appleby was a master of double-speak. His sonorous voice was perfect for the rapid-fire delivery which purposely made the dialogue sound like gobbledegook. Simon Drew handled Bernard Woolley’s excessive pedantry with undisguised guile, whilst Simone-Maree Dixon’s ballsy Special Policy Advisor Claire Sutton completed a cast that included some incisive cameos by Tristan Foon as the Kumraninstan Ambassador and Trevor Bond as Simon Chester Director General of the BBC.

The show had previously been produced, at the same venue, by Ipswich Musical Theatre as their 2019 Dinner Theatre production and this was a special performance for those who didn’t want to compete with cutlery and the clinking of glasses. It was popularist entertainment which more than satisfied its target audience.

Peter Pinne