Scandaltown review: Satire on cancel culture falls flat
Imagine having three plays opening in London at once. Mike Bartlett, writer of the huge TV hit Doctor Foster, is that guy right now. Cock, starring Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey, is on in the West End, and he’s also commanding two of the biggest off-West End theatres with The 47th at the Old Vic and Scandaltown on at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Scandaltown’s set up is a restoration comedy, which in layman’s terms is a comedy set in the 1600s which often takes a critical view of institutions, and comes armed with bags of cynicism. The play carries many of Bartlett’s motifs, with the playwright bringing the production up to date with swipes at cancel culture, and the Conservative government, mainly by way of a character who is a farcical fusion of Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock. There are also plenty of pandemic references and comments on the corruptive influence of social media.
At the centre of the plot is the aristocratic Lady Climber. Preparing to attend the prestigious Netflix Masked Ball, she’s hoping to score a political career but her exploits risk getting her cancelled. But could that be the best thing for her rise? Then there are some Gen Z youngsters, one of whom is so concerned about her brother’s bad behaviour that she dresses up as a boy to go and spy on him.
Cue lots of farcical moments that wouldn’t go amiss in a pantomime, as the privileged set fumble around trying to dig themselves out of scandals which could make salacious headlines. Rachael Stirling’s Lady Climber gets off with a much younger man, and Richard Goulding’s Tory (whose actual name is ‘Matt Eton’) spouts PR lines trying to excuse behaviour which is by definition inexcusable.
The cast do a buoyant job at keeping the energy flowing, and there are some decent jokes, particularly at the expense of the Tory leaders. The idea is that the sentiments and actions of these powerful individuals feel as hollow as the Instagram posts published by the generation of online ‘activists’ criticised for being performative without actually following through with their ideas.
It’s a neat concept, but everything feels a bit too on-the-nose, and sometimes Barlett’s writing takes aim at low hanging fruit.
There’s a fair bit of scandal in Scandaltown, but as Boris continues to be investigated for breaking his own lockdown laws, so there is in real life. Bartlett’s story doesn’t quite justify why we should be here at the theatre rather than voyeuristically watching something just as scandalous play out online.
Scandaltown plays at the Lyric Hammersmith until 14 May