It may well be possible to write a brilliant farce based on the idea of a Downing Street cleaning lady who has the knack of imitating the Prime Minister's voice well enough to fool Mr Gorbachev and Mr Reagan and thus cause misunderstandings on the hot lines which precipitate a major nuclear crisis, but it would call for much more skill, imagination and political understanding than seems to be within the range of Tony Williamson, author of The Cabinet Mole, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, and now on tour. The show runs for less than 2 hours and, even with the added complications of there being other charlady moles elsewhere in Whitehall, is still about 90 minutes too long.  It has seven characters of which only two are worth acting at all.  The plot degenerates through a series of tasteless trivialities to a sudden contrived ending which has to be a cop-out because the author does not know how to arrive at a resolution.

Amanda Barrie as the char does enough with the material offered to make the audience warm to her bouncy style and her Thatcher voice is effectively produced and modulated.  She was very well supported by Bruce Montague as an increasingly terrified Press Officer.  Even this pair of experienced and hard-working players do not seem to have been extended at all by the director-producer Charles Ross.  The rest of the cast had hardly any lines worth speaking and no funny business to perform.  I was especially sorry for Gerald Flood and Sue Hodge who had to carry a silly subplot which appeared to belong to a totally different to play.

Farce should have pace, sparkle, invention, complexity of plotting and eccentricity of character.  This production had none of these necessities. Perhaps Mr Ross is hoping that the show will “play in” during the tour.  Whilst it is true that even shows as lame as this may be made to appear to stand up by a devoted and experienced cast, touring managements must always remember that provincial audiences do not expect to have to pay full price for their seats in order to watch a costumed rehearsal.