BWW Reviews: HOPE, Royal Court Theatre, December 2 2014

The festive period is usually a time when we're told to look tothe future and forget about all of our troubles. Hope is the latest play by Jack Thorne to be staged at the Royal Court. It is a political drama set around a group of Labour councillors struggling to deal with the financial strain currently being imposed upon local government.

Set in an unnamed working class town, the Labour council have been told they must cut their budget by £22m, leaving the councillors up in arms about what needs to go in order for them to stay on target including care for the elderly, care for the disabled, libraries, swimming pools, street lights and museums. Deputy leader of the council Mark (Paul Higgins) opens the play with his rehearsal of a speech he has prepared in light of the estimated £64m savings the council has to make over the next few years. Along with the leader of the council Hilary (Stella Gonet) and fellow councillors Sarwan (Rudi Dharmalingam), Lata (Nisha Nayar) and Julie (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), who also happens to be Mark's occasional lover, the unhappy councillors try to make the important decisions of where the cuts should be made.

One organisation threatened is a day centre for disabled people run by Gina (Christine Entwiste), who is Mark's ex-partner and mother to his teenage son Jake, brilliantly played by Tommy Knight. After Hilary attends the day centre to judge a cake baking competition, Gina asks her if the day centre will be axed in the cuts, which Hilary vehemently denies and offers Gina reassurance that her organisation will be fine. However, when the news that the centre is getting cut is leaked to Gina, the personal and political collide resulting in a historic decision being made which sees the council in the firing line of the national press.

Thorne and director John Tiffany's last collaboration, Let the Right One In, became a big success with a sold out run at the Royal Court followed by a transfer to the West End. While this may not be as popular as their previous production, the anguish and desperation of the councillors is a real problem facing local government today. Hope seems to come in the form of Mark's son Jake who, when discussing Charles Dickens' Great Expectations with former councillor Red (Tom Georgeson), argues that we all have to at least try throughout our lives; otherwise, there's just not much point.

Photo Credit: Alastair Muir

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