JOYCE MCMILLAN
real sense of dynamism, in a play that sometimes seems to be about the substance of English identity, empire and citizenship, sometimes about the idea of identity itself (does it necessarily entail prejudice and hatred?), and sometimes aboutwherewedrawtheline, in exchanging views with those whose ideas we believe to be utterly wrong. Any one of these themes would have made a powerful play, and perhaps a great one, for this Brexit moment in British history. In the end, though, Hannan and his director, Roxana Silbert, choose to give us all and none of them. Instead, they lay all these elements before us, in long dialogue scenes of very variable quality and credibility; and then – in a decision that perhaps inevitably skews the play towards its charismatic and brilliantly portrayed central character – they leave us to make of them what we will.
Until 23 September