What more is there to say about Liz Truss? Did the lettuce have the final word, as well as the longer shelf life? This satirical show tries to find hidden depths, and in part succeeds.
As we take our seats Emma Wilkinson Wright (as Truss) is seated at a desk, scribbling notes distractedly, presumably for a farewell speech as the men in grey suits close in. When the show begins, she opens up about her parlous situation before moving into reminiscent mode. While not a direct or simple imitation Wilkinson Wright captures Truss’ sheer physical awkwardness very well, and many of her vocal mannerisms shine through too. Her breakout moments into karaoke numbers work less well, though, interrupting the flow and not always justified in the moment, despite some piquant and witty verbal allusions.
Set design and layout are simple and effective – we are in the Downing Street study, a view of the garden as a back projection, a lectern to one side for more public statements, and a picture of Margaret Thatcher presiding. The focus is on the character, what created her, and how that formation unmade her too.
Here the episodes that stand out both dramatically and as interpretation focus on her childhood – the refusal to accept conventional authority and the vehement self-assertion both a strength and an anticipation of her fatal flaw as a politician, a complete inability if not unwillingness to read the room or engage with differences of opinion.
What impresses too is that in the later, familiar account of her political career the writing offers more than a two-dimensional hatchet job playing for laughs – though there are plenty of those! Wilkinson Wright makes us feel the force of Truss’ determination not to be put down by mediocre and incompetent men and the sincerity, however misplaced, of her ironclad self-belief. Given the obstacles placed in the way of Tory women we are left wondering how else she could have made her way to the top? There are some excellent moments of back-and-forth between Wilkinson Wright and a range of plummy, rarified, delusional Tory voices all created by the distinguished mimic Steve Nallon.
There is also a truly excellent section in which Greg Wilkinson provides as fine a statement of the importance of future economic growth to the quality of all our lives as you will hear from any economist. It is perhaps telling that this speech, amounting to Truss’ credo, was heard in complete silence by the audience, aware of how far we are four years later from finding any credible political answer to this central problem of our times. In this way the play is fair to Truss to this extent – however hopeless her solutions and strategy, at least she did identify and prioritise the fundamental problem.
Yet the writing does rather lose its way towards the end as we move beyond Truss’ fall to encompass her subsequent endorsement of Trump and tin-eared venture into American politics. This is an unnecessary and undramatic coda that had me looking at my watch. Like so many shows that start off in short form, expansion into a full-length, two-hour enterprise does the show no favours.
Less is more, once again.
Writer: Greg Wilkinson
Director: Anthony Shrubsall
Performers: Emma Wilkinson Wright and Steve Nallon
Until March 15 2026
2 hrs with interval