★★★★

“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.

DR FREUD WILL SEE YOU NOW, MRS HITLER

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★★★

“As an insight into the lives of both protagonists, it is a very worthwhile evening.”

From Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the writers of Birds of a Feather, Roll Over Beethoven, The New Statesman and a multitude of other celebrated TV comedy dramas, comes this new work, premiered at UATG.

It’s an odd one. Not a comedy, but with comic moments. Not an imagined story, but a fantasy setting of four seminal meetings of these two huge figures who, it could be said, actually changed the world. Not a play with tension – we know the ending for these characters, after all. And it also takes a bit of time to get into it. The opening scenes are clunky, if dramatic. But when it gets into its stride, this is a first class evening’s entertainment for anyone interested in these giants of 20th century history and how their actions still resonate now.

The basic premise of the play, directed by UATG’s artistic director Isaac Bernier-Doyle, is straightforward. As an infant, Adolf Hitler suffers from nightmares and bedwetting. Mrs Hitler (played by Nesba Crenshaw who skilfully transitions into Mrs Freud in subsequent scenes) takes him to the family doctor who recommends that the child attend a new nervous disorders clinic, run by you-know-who. Her extremely violent husband refuses to let her. But what if he had? Could proper psychological treatment have changed the course of history?

This is the clunky bit. Anna Freud (acted with great warmth by lovely Ruby Ablett) introduces and closes the play with this question. It is not very clear why the narrative arc is given to her to manage. And in the first of four main imaginary scenes of meetings between Hitler and Freud, the attempt to analyse Hitler doesn’t really hit the right note – although Hitler’s introduction into the scene as a child is suitably comic. Freud’s ‘analysis’ of Hitler is cursory, and we already know what is causing the problem.

After that, the drama gets going. Through successive encounters over the period leading up to the Second World War we see Hitler become the man he is going to be. His paranoia and inherited violent nature emerges; his belief that he is at core a misunderstood and rejected artist is given reign; and his need for attention and praise is on full display. So, actually, the answer to the ‘what if’ question is ‘no’. Because what you get here is snippets of the real lives and real personalities of Freud and Hitler. The research behind this play was impeccable and manifests in the coincidences that Marks and Gran have used to create the structure the play. As an insight into the lives of both protagonists, it is a very worthwhile evening.

What it is not, however, is a comedy. There are laughs and light moments. Apparently, Freud was known for his love of humour, but he makes bad jokes and the audience laughter was rare. I wondered if the subject matter at its heart was just too dark for us to laugh at it. Or maybe because the consequences of Hitler’s antisemitism still echo down this century.

A word about the key performances. Jonathan Taffler is Sigmund Freud. He really is. He was an utterly believable character, in turns ironic, arch and strong but always kind. Sam Mac as Hitler is completely watchable: needy, boastful, resentful and his outbursts of anger (cleverly echoed in a soundscape of Hitler’s actual speeches) are sinister. If he is trying to be funny, maybe we just can’t laugh at Hitler – although this is not the first such attempt. The set, too, is designed very skilfully – by Hannah Danson, with lighting by Simon Jackson – to allow out-of-sight scenes to play and it amplifies the darkness of the era.

In the closing scene, Anna brings forward one more coincidence. Freud died (at a place near ‘here’- Hampstead) in September 1939. Hitler ‘lived a little longer’.

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

DR FREUD WILL SEE YOU NOW, MRS HITLER

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★★★

“As an insight into the lives of both protagonists, it is a very worthwhile evening.”