Ten Times Table
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Neil Cooper
Three stars
“Did we win? Our side?” asks Deborah Grant’s crazed Theresa May-in-waiting Helen amidst the chaos of a historical re-enactment that collapses into civil war towards the end of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1977 play. Brexit may have been but a twinkle in every little Britisher’s eye when Ayckbourn premiered his dissection of how civic democracy can be subverted. It doesn’t take an inner lobby pundit, however, to work out why long-standing Ayckbournista Robin Herford’s revival for the Bill Kenwright produced Classic Comedy Theatre Company’s inaugural tour has appeared right now.
Things begin innocently enough in the garish old-school ballroom of the Swan Hotel, where a committee has convened to plan a grassroots folk festival designed to boost both morale and local community coffers. These days, the likes of artists Jeremy Deller and Bill Drummond would be reclaiming and reinventing such ancient rites. At the helm here, alas, is Robert Daws’ Ray, Helen’s ditheringly diplomatic other half. His attempts to steer things are offset by Mark Curry’s by-the-book local councillor Donald as well as the more insurrectionary intent of Craig Gazey’s power-hungry proto Corbynista Eric, who tempts Gemma Oaten’s Sophie into the fold.
With battle-lines drawn across increasingly polarised extremes, the ballroom plays host to fall-outs, factions and secret meetings that eventually give way to an attempt at a very British coup led by ex-army man Tim. His gung-ho fantasies of military glory look troublingly familiar, even as they are acted out against a backdrop of drunk dignitaries gathered round the old joanna. And then there is the silent majority, which arrives in the form of Eric’s live-in spouse Philippa.
As played by Rhiannon Handy with comically put-upon resignation, she remains the one holding everything together, even if she never finds her voice enough to stand up to both sides of the divide. As Ray gleefully realises at the end, this battle may be lost, but there are plenty of wars to win yet.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here