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The Review - THEATRE
 

Robert Hands plays the idealist Bill
European farce

THE SCHUMAN PLAN
Hampstead Theatre by TOM FOOT

ROBERT Schuman’s plan was to stabilise political hostilities in post-war Europe by uniting the French and German coal and steel industries, a concept that led to the European Economic Community (EEC) and in turn the European Union (EU).
Although named after the French Prime Minister (1947-8), the Schuman Plan was drafted by Jean Monnet – deputy secretary-general of the League of Nations and personal aide to General de Gaulle during the war.
Playwright Tim Luscombe charts Britain’s part in creating the common market, in particular Tory Prime Minister Ted Heath’s notorious Common Fisheries Policy – not the sexiest subject it must be said.
A typical line: “Yes but I do not pretend to support the CFP, the CAP or MAFF. I support the EU but I wish people would stop calling it Europe.”
Drowning in a sea of acronyms – the glossary in the programme notes adequately suspending disbelief – I felt myself drifting helplessly into sleep. But this is part of the point.
Through the idealist visions of civil servant Bill (Robert Hands), the audience is parched at the interval, only to come out wondering why a history so life-changing, culture shaping, and ultimately self-imploding can at the same time be so earth-shatteringly dull.
The duality has clearly rankled with the playwright and is evident throughout. The badly informed local journo, smacked in the face by a national story as the Ipswich fishing community goes under, knowing her readers, is reluctant to report. Her indifference reflects a nation’s apathy to the “European question.” Even Bill’s sex scene lacked a certain rhythm.
The Schuman Plan is a modern day tragedy. A story of a man who trudges from optimism to reality, broken by the capitalist system, he returns to his fishing town roots only to destroy them, hobbling off stage a wretched and disconsolate old man.
Ted Heath’s (Simon Robson) attacks on Margaret Thatcher, “That bloody woman – she’s turned me into the Trotsky of the Tory party,” were hilarious and despite some debatable East Anglian accents, the fisherman did their troubled trade proud.
Bill’s confrontation with the Italian Mafia drew a burst of spontaneous applause.
Like a dose of Night Nurse, powerful, provoking sleep, but ultimately good for the head.
Until March 3
020 7722 9304
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