Winston and David – Theatre at the Tabard review

Joseph Emms as David Lloyd George and Peter Swales as Winston Churchill

A spirited snapshot of a turbulent period in our history, powered by two performances that stay well away from hagiography

At the Tabard Theatre, Winston and David offers a thought-provoking take on the relationship between two greats of 20^th Century politics: Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George.

Opening on a haze-filled stage with one half conspicuously lit in red and the other in blue, the suggestion is that this play will focus more on the eventual differences between the two, but it is not to be so. Although divided by class, the two find common cause when Winston, after his early appearances in Parliament as a ‘new Tory bully boy’, embraces the principles of free trade and is persuaded to change sides and work with the liberal-minded David.

And so, we are set for a gallop through the first half of the century, taking in two World Wars and a host of personal conflicts, director Nick Hennegan ensuring things never flag over the course of a compact and absorbing hour.

Writer Robert Lloyd George crams an awful lot into the running time, arguably too much, and many huge and important events are skimmed over and left unexplored. There is a tension between the personal and the political, and the play itself can’t quite make up its mind as to which way it wants to go. It is at its strongest in its portrayals of the individuals, staying well away from hagiography.

Peter Swales as Winston is suitably Tiggerish at the start, fascinated by the geopolitics of war and declaring the Boers ‘a brave foe’. After forming a political alliance with David, now Chancellor, he finds ‘events in Europe’ in the run-in to the Great War coming between them. David wants ‘nothing to do with this war’, but Winston is fired up by the prospect of it and eagerly takes up the offer to run the Admiralty.

This version of Churchill is self-pitying, prone to irrational bursts of temper, childish and petulant; Swales does well to keep us on side through all this, letting lighter moments shine through: when Churchill changes sides to the Liberals, he finds himself ‘blackballed by the Hurlingham’. The horror.

Joseph Emms, Alexandra Donnachie as Frances, Peter Swales

Joseph Emms as David has a lot to get his teeth into and does so with energy and passion. His conviction politics are sketched out with economy, and he has the look of a man who means it. Less admirable is his private life, which is uncomfortably laid bare.

His attraction to a young woman, Frances (Alexandra Donnachie), is palpable but troubling when we discover she was a classmate of his now deceased daughter. In short order Frances becomes a ‘substitute daughter’, then secretary (‘not that  itfools anybody’) and mistress.

There are hanging threads: Winston’s stutter threatens to be an impediment but is quickly forgotten, an unexpected pregnancy creates genuine dramatic tension but is somehow resolved out of sight, and a momentary subplot involving Frances’s brother’s involvement in battle is beside the point and a miscalculation.

That said, at its best, this is a spirited snapshot of a turbulent period in our history and a glimpse of two of the most significant figures from that time. Anyone interested in early 20^th Century history will find much to discuss and argue about.

Winston and David runs until 29 August.

Book tickets: Winston and David

Simon Thomsett has worked in the professional theatre for a number of years. He started out as a stage manager and technician then became a venue director and producer, notably at the Hackney Empire, Fairfield Halls and most recently the New Victoria Theatre in Woking.

He now works as a consultant and on some small scale producing projects. He is a Chiswick resident and a passionate advocate for great theatre.