★★★★

“Silas Hawkins as Max Moore is horribly believable”

Keir Starmer doesn’t need a writer to help him explain the scary prospect of a government with The Reform Party in charge. He should just tell his followers (and doubters) to see Francis Beckett’s new play ‘Make England Great Again’ .

By coincidence, (actually, no, of course it wasn’t) on the very night after Starmer delivered his anti-Farage conference speech, MEGA opened at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, the north London pub theatre consistently punching above its weight in entertainment and, as now, political satire. MEGA covers the same territory as our real Prime Minister, but with the power of humour, four excellent caricatures and a series of rapid scenes in which are played out the Trumpian-style outcome of a far right in control.

King Charles III (a brilliant comic performance by Clive Greenwood) is on stage as the play opens, watching the news to find out he has a new prime minister. This is the first of the many breaks with constitutional process to come – we know that he should be the first to know, before any public pronouncements. Immediately after, the man himself, Max Moore, confidently strides in for his first weekly ‘audience’ with the sovereign. What follows is a piece of stage business worthy of Morecambe and Wise as King Charles attempts to correct Moore’s apparent (or deliberate) ignorance of the protocols attending that interview. And we are off, on a fairground ride involving the King, the Prime Minister, a glamorous press secretary/political journalist Samantha (Abi Haberfield), who just happens to have a few ambitions of her own, and the leader of the opposition Pam Jones (Miranda Colmans).

Silas Hawkins as Max Moore is horribly believable, given our recent experience of political leaders. It’s a great turn. Hawkins has worked before with Beckett and director Owain Rose, most notably in UATG’s ‘Vodka with Stalin’, and he was clearly their obvious choice. His populist speeches are rousing and grim in equal measure. The best speech, however, is saved for Colmans as Pam Jones. In this, Beckett delivers his real political message. Suitably, he suspends all laughs and we are treated to a really effective piece of oratory about the importance of embracing diversity, transparency and unity within the political spectrum.

It is entirely appropriate that Rose has kept the set completely simple, comprising just a dark background, three chairs and a coffee table which are discreetly rearranged by the actors, in accordance with the needs of their scene. That and a very subtle soundscape – yielding at some points hollow echoes of Moore’s pronouncement and at others, rabble cheers – are all the dressing we need to complement four very good performances and keep the messaging up front.

We were treated on this opening night to an extended post-performance audience discussion led by Beckett with former Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock. I’m not a fan usually of these events, but this was very special indeed if only to be reminded of how charismatic a Prime Minister we might once have had, alongside one who is balanced and does actually care about the people. I mention it here, only because even if Keir Starmer can’t actually say ‘go and see this play if you want a snapshot of the damage a far right party could do’, Kinnock actually did.

TOM LEHRER IS TEACHING MATH AND DOESN’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU at Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★

“There was more action in the archive LP recording than live on stage

It takes some effort to murder a Tom Lehrer song but, Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You, managed to murder in spades. Luck has it that the show is already sold out for its short run – so read no further.

Upstairs At The Gatehouse in Highgate, to date has had a great reputation for putting on high quality musical revue shows with some of the world’s finest musical theatre writers and composers: delightful scripted chat, high production values and strong singing voices throughout. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

However, Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You, is a badly conceived play by Francis Beckett interspersed with 25 of Lehrer’s most famous songs. The premise, Iris (Nabilah Hamid) is a young Lehrer fan and would be journalist in 1970, who turns up unannounced at the home of Tom Lehrer (Shahaf Ifhar) to interview this very private man.

Sadly, in this two-hander, both the play and performances lack any substance. Shahaf Ifhar plays Lehrer’s deadpan comedic lines so flat, his Lehrer is boring – something that Lehrer most certainly is not. So many of the laugh lines went for nothing: “I’m fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin Kaberetts of the 1930s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War.”

Neither actor can put across a musical number with any panache – and the direction by Isaac Bernier-Doyle (one of the new Co-Artistic Directors of Upstairs at the Gatehouse) hits all the wrong notes from the get-go; with the opening number I Got It From Agnes, performed as “it” being a physical typewriter and various desk stationary. The “it” in Lehrer’s seemingly innocent lyrics is most definitely venereal disease, in his genius and usually very funny satirical song with never a naughty word used. Satirical, being the operative word that is synonymous with Tom Lehrer.

Tom Lehrer’s most famous song, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, literally stopped dead halfway through, as Shahaf ran noisily off stage to bring on a park bench for the duo to sit on. The bench could have and should have been set in front of the upright piano from the top of the show (where pianist and musical director Harry Style plays). Throughout, the staging left a lot to be desired….

The natural interval was at the end of the song We Will All Go Together When We Go – the audience has just had a jolly sing-along and Iris walks off leaving Lehrer’s home. But the Lehrer character goes on to sing two further numbers before curtain down on Act One.

Act Two starts with an actual recording relayed over the sound system of Tom Lehrer performing; with his wonderful deadpan patter, brilliant piano playing and singing his hilarious rendition of Clementine. The Gatehouse theatre audience laughing spontaneously. A joyous moment. There was more action in the archive LP recording than live on stage.

The clunky script jumps 30 years, and again the now mature “stalker” journalist Iris returns to find Lehrer and again asks why did you stop performing, didn’t you enjoy the adoration of your audience (sic)? Too much script just spouting dates: the Vietnam war, That Was The Week That Was, the nuclear bomb, Trump, Nixon, Monica Lewinsky – and the show Tomfoolery, which was actually premiered in 1980 and not in 1982 as the script stated tonight in Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You….

The show finishes with Tom Lehrer’s sublime parody of popular music with his song The Elements – literally listing the names of all the chemical elements, to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Major-General Song from The Pirates of Penzance. And I have to say both Hamid and Ifhar, alongside Harry Style, sung without a name out of place at great speed!

The play ends telling the audience that Tom Lehrer, who is still alive aged 96, transferred all songs he had ever written into the public domain, and in 2022 Lehrer formally relinquished the copyright/performing/recording rights on his songs, making them free for anyone to use – including a small theatre in North London……

MAKE ENGLAND GREAT AGAIN

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★★★

“Silas Hawkins as Max Moore is horribly believable”

MAKE ENGLAND GREAT AGAIN

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Reviewed on 30th September 2025

by Louise Sibley

Photography by Karen Hatch

Previously reviewed at this venue:

MAKE ENGLAND

MAKE ENGLAND

MAKE ENGLAND

TOM LEHRER IS TEACHING MATH AND DOESN’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU at Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★

“There was more action in the archive LP recording than live on stage

TOM LEHRER IS TEACHING MATH AND DOESN’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU at Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Reviewed on 29th May 2024

by Debbie Rich

Photograpy by Simon Jackson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer

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