REVIEW ROUNDUP: Henry Goodman, David Haig Open Yes, Prime Minister at Chichester

David Haig and Henry Goodman have opened in Yes, Prime Minister in the Festival Theatre at Chichester. Based on the hit television series of the same name, the play has been adapted for the stage by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn and directed by Lynn. The production continues through June 5.

The play focuses on fictional Prime Minister Jim Hacker (Haig), his Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (Goodman) and his Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley (Jonathan Slinge) who are finding themselves coping with the realities of politics in the 21st century.

The company also features William Chubb (Jeremy Burnham), Sam Dastor (Ambassador), Emily Joyce (Claire), Jonathan Slinger (Bernard), and Tim Wallers (Simon Chester).

The creative team includes Simon Higlett (production design), Tim Mitchell (lighting design), and John Leonard (sound consultant).

The critics’ responses to the play have been warm — finding mostly praise for Goodman and Haig’s work and the writers’ work in adapting the television show for the stage.

Among the reviews are:

Daily Telegraph
Yes Prime Minister: Chichester Festival Theatre, review
“How wonderful it is to have them back. More than twenty years on from the acclaimed television series, Jim Hacker, that most embattled and craven of prime ministers, and Sir Humphrey Appleby, the most devious and obscurantist of senior civil servants, are back, and in truly vintage form in a new stage play.”

—–

“There is no attempt at slavish imitation of the originals. There is more steel and less silk in Goodman’s Appleby, even more craven panic and farcical desperation in Haig’s Hacker. The comedy however remains as politically sharp, and as blissfully funny, as ever.”

The Guardian
Yes, Prime Minister
“This is not a simple replica of the popular 1980s TV series. Even if writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn couldn’t be expected to foresee the comic possibilities of coalition, they recognise that the power balance inside politics has radically changed, and that Jim Hacker has become more presidential, while being ever more dependent on others. The result is to push satire, legitimately in my view, into the zany realm of farce.”

—–

“Even if Sir Humphrey is no longer the puppet-master he once was, Henry Goodman invests him with a Machiavellian smoothness and shows an astonishing capacity to reel off obfuscatory soliloquies on a single breath. Jonathan Slinger also turns the loyal Bernard into a troubled moralist, and Emily Joyce conveys the rising power of the special adviser who, as it happens, always gives bad advice. But then the whole point of this buoyant farce, with its references to everything from politicians’ fear of the Daily Mail to the tacky commercialism of the BBC, is that it locates its madness in a world we all recognise.”

The Independent
Yes, Prime Minister, Festival Theatre, Chichester
“Still, the sight of David Haig bending his body into self-justifying contortions is indeed one for sore eyes, and his outbursts are occasionally vintage…”

—–

“Henry Goodman’s silkenly superior Sir Humphrey only falters when it emerges that he’s advising a bank to buy up euros big-time in exchange for a directorship he’s lined up. While Jonathan Slinger’s brilliantly febrile Bernard, Jim’s jumpy Principal Private Secretary, smooths over the cracks with impenetrable Latin tags.”

The Stage
Yes, Prime Minister
“Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn have transformed their successful television comedy into an hilarious new play, lovingly directed at great pace by Lynn on a traditional Chichester set.”

—–

“Sir Humphrey, beautifully played by Henry Goodman, with long soliloquies to give him thinking time when under pressure, is the epitome of the grand mandarin. Prime minister Hacker is played by David Haig with great vigour and pseudo-confidence, which becomes transparent when he is faced with a decision.”

The Times
Yes, Prime Minister, at the Chichester Festival Theatre
“There’s much to enjoy…The performances are strong, even if Emily Joyce tries too hard to force some character into her underwritten part as Hacker’s special adviser. Lynn directs briskly, so the tension is sustained, the zingers keep coming, even if sometimes the show could do with a bit more air. A bit more humanity. Just a bit.”

Whatsonage.com
Yes, Prime Minister (Chichester)
“Sadly, the stage version has lost some of the power of the original.”

—–

“Stretching the premise out to more than two hours means that the plot becomes more important – and more implausible. It feels as if the writers couldn’t decide whether it should be a continuation of the TV programme or a farce; as a result, it falls uncomfortably between the two. Throw in some additional, and unnecessary, characters and it starts to look over-loaded, running noticeably out of steam in the second half.”

—–

“As Humphrey Appleby, Henry Goodman’s rendition is too close an imitation of Nigel Hawthorne’s television portrayal, but without the smug omniscience. Haig’s excellent Jim Hacker, however, is a complete contrast to Paul Eddington’s hapless minister. And Jonathan Slinger’s Bernard is a triumph, a delightful depiction of a man caught between public duty and private ambition and whose vivid facial expressions capture the soul of a man being pulled apart by contrasting forces.”

For further information, visit: www.cft.org.uk.