Theatre review: The Whip

It's been a lacklustre Swan season so while its final production, Juliet Gilkes Romero's The Whip, isn't without flaws I still found it the strongest offering. The title comes from the nominal lead's position, as Alexander Boyd (Richard Clothier) is the Chief Whip for the ruling Whig party in the early 1830s, but as the issue that defines his time in Parliament is the abolition of slavery in British colonies the title inevitably has a much more sinister double meaning. Boyd's initial mission is actually the reform of child labour in British factories, but he's diverted onto the abolition bill that's been dragging through Parliament for years. Slavery might never have been legal in the UK itself but the Empire's wealth comes from allowing it to continue in its colonies, and the West Indies are its last bastion. Finalising a deal hasn't been easy because too many politicians have a personal interest: Boyd is chosen to champion the cause as one of the few MPs not to be a slaveowner himself.

The central issue of debate is one of reparations, but they're not looking to compensate the freed slaves; the question is how much taxpayer money they're going to pay the slaveowners for the loss of labour.

A more insidious clause to the bill becomes increasingly important, as a provision for "unpaid apprenticeships" essentially requires freed slaves to work another seven years, possibly in even worse conditions as they'll no longer be property to be protected. What starts as a play full of heated debate and passionate belief in a cause turns into a political intrigue that's depressingly contemporary as the final package is put together by backroom deals, backstabbing and dodgy alliances, with Boyd's Tory opposite Villiers (John Cummins) standing to make one of the biggest fortunes from a big payout.

The Tory MPs are racist, untrustworthy, out only for their own self-interest and openly contemptuous of the working class, their only interest in progress being to take credit for it as soon as it's been achieved by others. And it turns out they were like that in the 19th century as well. But Boyd also has to get his own party on his side, with influential radicals like Anthony Bradshaw Cooper (Tom McCall) opposed to the concessions they've offered. While men fail to find a way of uniting the causes of abolition in the colonies and workers' rights at home, two women might be able to as Boyd's housekeeper Horatia (Katherine Pearce) and escaped slave and high-profile campaigner Mercy Pryce (Debbie Korley) find common ground.

Gilkes Romero's play is a little bit too overloaded with the various competing causes for reform, and is a little too long - it doesn't help that Ciaran Bagnall's design relies heavily on a dining table being constantly flown on and off the stage on wires, slowing the action down as everyone sets it then clears it again. But Kimberley Sykes' production is strong on conveying the rage of those waiting to be served by the politicians' machinations - Michael Abubakar, Nadi Kemp-Sayfi, Riad Richie and Bridgitta Roy, in all the supporting roles, are even credited as a Chorus of Furies.

A lot of this comes from the frustration of seeing the failings of those who'll end up being credited with reform. From the start Boyd isn't as purely driven by principle as he makes out: His urgency to get the bill passed is because he can see which way the tide is turning and wants to avoid violent uprisings, and for someone who doesn't own slaves there's the question of when his black "ward" Edmund (Corey Montague-Sholay,) who acts as his Parliamentary Assistant, will actually start getting paid. But as he keeps making concessions that seem to leave his opposition with a better deal than they started out with, his weaknesses just seem to mount up. Part of a recent trend in plays that, in the wake of Brexit-related jingoism about the Empire, remind us where that Empire got its power from, The Whip is an interesting look at the underbelly of events that history will broadly remember as triumphs of progress.

The Whip by Juliet Gilkes Romero is booking in repertory until the 21st of March at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Running time: 3 hours including interval.

Photo credit: Steve Tanner.