Set in a world of preposterous coincidences where the “lettuce often eats the rabbit”, David Hare’s political satire is (nearly) everything a night at the theatre should be.

Home Secretary Meredith Guest (thoughtfully played by Tamsin Greig) is a woman under siege, with an out-of-control daughter (Jessica Raine) and absentee “entrepreneur” husband who is facing a spell inside, forcing her to choose between career and family.

“There’s only one safe place for a politician to live – and that’s in ignorance,” quips her assistant Monique (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

One-time hairdresser Otto Fallon (the lovable Stanley Townsend), meanwhile, operates a “pretension racket” from a squash court in his garden in Bishops Avenue.

His game involves serving up the chance for businessmen to meet the Prime Minister in return for a swift back-hander.

The story lines collide and weave themselves into a wicked web of deceit, sex and lies.

The play skitters effortlessly between settings, with a clever backdrop of time-lapse footage of traffic, and all the performances are equally stylish.

Nicola Walker relaxes beautifully into the part of Lori Drysdale, a charismatic teacher-turned-busker who takes on the might of the Press (Adam James’ lecherous Daily Mail columnist Geoff Benzine) and injects some sanity into Meredith’s daughter. Pip Carter, meanwhile, is painfully witty as Otto’s warped assistant Frank.

Hare’s tendency to throw one too many concepts into a sentence and indulge in meaningless word play were the only things to slightly mar an otherwise very entertaining evening.

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