Whipping it Up

 “Everything they say is true, then? Black ties; cigar smoke; whiskey in cut glass. Westminster runs the country, but the Whips run Westminster. The cabinet is the veneer”

Steve Thompson’s rapier-sharp play is set in the precarious early days of a future Tory government, which clings onto a tiny majority of three. A week before Christmas, a seemingly straightforward piece of legislation suddenly takes on absurd political significance and, with the PM chummying up to the President in Washington, every trick is needed to keep the strays in line, particularly when there’s already the whiff of a leadership challenge in the air.