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Preview by Jack Foley
WORLD politics take centre stage, once again, in a new political
satire entitled Follow My Leader, at the Hampstead Theatre,
from April 21 to May 15.
Written by Alistair Beaton, the satire will focus on Tony Blair
and George Bush, and will take the form of a musical comedy based
around current world affairs.
It will star Jason Durr, of TV's Heartbeat, and Stuart Milligan,
of Crossroads, as the real-life politicians, and has been subtitled
'Making a Song and Dance About the War on Terror'.
The play will trace the development of the 'war on terror', from
9/11, through the Iraq war, to the present day, and will watch
as Bush and Blair congratulate themselves on ridding the world
of dictatorship, even while their war activates a global clash
of cultures.
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Durr and Milligan will be joined by Sevan Stephan (Romeo and
Juliet, Lautrec), as Clare Short, in drag, and Peter Polycarpou
(Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui),
as Osama Bin Laden, Comical Ali and God.
Alistair Beaton will already be remembered by theatregoers for
his award-winning satire on New Labour spin, Feelgood, which transferred
to the West End after its premiere, at Hampstead, in 2001.
His other writing credits include Not the Nine O’Clock
News and Spitting Image.
Follow My Leader will feature music by Richard Blackford
and, prior to its Hampstead run, will appear at Birmingham Rep
from March 26.
Fans of political theatre should take note - the musical satire
should form an interesting companion piece to Tricycle Theatre's
upcoming Guantanamo
– ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom’, which
plays for a limited time, between May 24 and June 12, and
which promises to examine the plight of the Guantanamo Bay detainees.
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