The Gang of Three
Kings Head Theatre, Islington
★★★★★

THIS excellent play examines the conflictual relationship between three of the Labour Party leading right wingers of the 1970s and ’80s.

The three hander moves to and from between Roy Jenkins (Hywel Morgan), Denis Healey (Colin Tierney) and Tony Crosland (Alan Cox), the plot shifting between various leadership and deputy leadership elections between 1976 and 1980.

All three contest the 1976 leadership election, won by Jim Callaghan. Crosland contested an earlier deputy leadership contest, bringing forth a quip from Healey about coming seventh in a field of five.

By the time the 1980 leadership contest arrives, Jenkins has left British politics for the European Commission and Crosland is dead (of a brain haemorrhage in 1977). Healey loses to Michael Foot by 10 votes.

Whilst Jenkins seeks to woo Healey to join his SDP venture, the two are left regretting their failure to act together.

The slick interchanges and nice pace of the play keep the momentum up throughout the whole 90 minutes.

The set remains the same room, with a bit of furniture moving for different scenes. But the three actors do a fine job in really building the characters’ presence.

The script from Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky is witty, whilst bringing some good political insight.

The now acknowledged view that Britain didn’t need to go cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout in 1976 is laid squarely at Healey’s door. And Healey is happy to be seen as an early prophet of austerity.

Meanwhile, Jenkins’s disillusionment with the party is revealed when he suggests they deserved to lose — also betraying how the right always prefer to see the Tories in government rather than a left-wing Labour administration.

Crosland is viewed as gifted but never really a bet for leader, until after his death, when the remaining two suggest he may have been the best of them.

A fascinating play, with plenty of laughs, laced with serious political discourse. This snapshot also shows a Labour Party with people, though of the right, still of substance, able to debate the major issues with confidence in public. A marked contrast to the authoritarian and insecure operation now presided over by Keir Starmer.

Well worth seeing for those who lived through those years and others who appreciate a well told Labour history lesson.

Runs till June 1. Box office: 0207 226 8561, kingsheadtheatre.com