Scandaltown review: Mike Bartlett’s contemporary Restoration play is a clutter of a parody

Beyond packing as many contemporary cultural references into his script as possible, the playwright’s satire about the rich and powerful is underachieving

Under armour: Cecilia Appiah as as the comically disguised Phoebe in ‘Scandaltown' (Marc Brenner)

The words of Mike Bartlett loom tall over London’s theatres. But, with Scandaltown – the playwright’s third show opening in less than two months, his supremacy has begun to teeter.

It’s a modern twist on a Restoration play, written for a post-lockdown era, so you’d expect it to be a witty interrogation of all things 2022. There’s a receding hair-lined secretary of state, Matt Eaton (Richard Goulding), who is uncannily like our own Boris Johnson and has haphazardly led the country through “the plague”. “Snowflakes” and “softness” are the insults of choice. There are mentions of Instagram pictures posted in “solidarity” with the Black Lives Matter movement. But beyond packing as many contemporary cultural references into his script as possible, Bartlett’s satire about the rich and powerful is underachieving.  

It starts as a Twelfth Night-ish quest – Phoebe (Cecilia Appiah) is desperate to find her brooding brother Jack (Matthew Broome), who has abandoned his good character for a life of drug and sex-fuelled fun in London. She poorly masks herself under a comically large male disguise as she embarks on her mission to track him down.

Unfortunately, with a script so overstuffed with unnecessary characters, this narrative quickly gets pushed to the sidelines. Next, we’re introduced to a Katie Hopkins-like, ex-Apprentice contestant turned TV star Lady Susan Climber (Rachel Stirling) who hopes to win a loyal band of followers by being as outrageous as possible on Twitter. Then, we move to a case of mistaken identity at a Netflix masked ball – no one ends up with the person they’re supposed to be with but, after some crass, sex-resembling movement sequences, it all works out in the end. While Bartlett’s play is linguistically smooth and eloquent, it’s the meaning behind it all that needs more work. 

Split into two hour-long sections, this is a flabby, almost totally unamusing script that is crying out for a good chop. Bartlett is thorough in his millennial-bashing – but it swiftly fatigues. His drawing of the young as blinded agents of social justice is nothing novel, and his writing never gets to the depths of any real societal analysis. Despite some respectable performances, particularly from newcomer Broome in his professional debut, Bartlett’s caricatured protagonists tend to lean towards one-note deliveries.

It’s an extravagant set designed by Good Teeth, but the end result is tacky, with the action bordered by cloud outlines that look fresh out of pantomime. The saving grace is the garishly loud costume design by Kinnetia Isidore that Rachel O’Riordan relies on to carry her oafish direction.

Though we might be having a Mike Bartlett moment, this is a clutter of a parody that, unlike some of his other triumphs, leaves a sour taste.

‘Scandaltown is at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre until 14 May