Golden

This show markets itself as a “political satire based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth.” You wouldn’t guess that from watching it. The idea of a political satire sounds safe enough, but in attempting to weave itself around one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Golden tries to be too many things at once and ends up being nothing much at all.

In reality, Daniel Rayner’s play bears only the faintest resemblance to "The Scottish Play": Matthew Golden is an MP cajoled by media man, Political Ed, into believing he can supplant Sir Olaf Safely from power. Rather than murdering his fellow politicians to get to the top, Golden sets about tarnishing their reputations. Inevitably he gets his comeuppance and is carted off to jail for “being a bit of a shit.” But the problem is that we don’t care. Unlike Macbeth, this is a world populated by caricatures, none of which are particularly memorable. Instead of the dastardly Lady Macbeth, for instance, we get Eva, a model obsessed with fame who eventually suffers an Amy Winehouse-style breakdown, shouting “No, no, no!” when offered rehab.

The fact that most of the comedy is of this brand—the blindingly obvious—means the laughs are also few and far between and, with the exception of Nick Myles, whose rendition of a manipulative press reporter is spot on, the acting is mostly uninspiring.

In asking its audience to invest in a story that doesn't know whether to take itself seriously or not, Golden is asking too much. The result is a tragi-comedy that is neither tragic nor comic, but just plain tedious.