Hutton and the sound of overkill

New take on old news: The play is the latest attempt to offer a fresh angle on the Hutton Inquiry
10 April 2012

If there is a single element of the whole unedifying Gilligan-Campbell-Kelly-Hutton affair that hasn't been raked over a dozen times, playwright Jack Grone didn't manage to include it in his script.

Instead of fresh insights, what he offers is the worst of both worlds: fictional characters we don't care about grafted onto factual events that have been analysed - unfortunately, literally - to death.

All the action that really matters thus happens offstage, but the fragments that are left unfold in the BBC's (one fervently hopes) fictional Radio Special Projects unit. In this Reithian timewarp, Simon, Gilly and Arabella spend all day telling each other, in somewhat overwrought fashion, about the Corporation's noble founding ideals and saying things such as "They'll have to hold an inquiry" after news of Dr Kelly's death. Media commentary is commented upon, an undramatic device if ever there was one. A flipchart with dates guides us through the unfolding events of 2003-4.

Catriona Ryan at least manages to inject some perkiness into Hugh Allison's turgid production as Beeb newcomer Arabella, but her character's thankless main task is to ask the questions that act as a cue for Simon (Steven Lello) and Gilly (Joanna Watt) to trade gruellingly long speeches about impartiality and tradition.

Arabella is also responsible for a bizarre sub-plot involving a betting syndicate in the Central Pronunciation Unit, which is about as amusing as it sounds.

So what did Andrew hear? The exploding sound of a play massively destructing is my guess.

Until 27 May. Information: 08701 696 805, www.tabardtheatre.co.uk

What Andrew Heard
Tabard Theatre
Bath Road, W4 1LW

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