AN ENERGETIC AND ENGAGING RENDITION OF A PLAY WHICH DESERVES TO GO DOWN AS A MODERN CLASSIC

By Richard Cubitt · Richard Cubitt Substack ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

Playing at Tower Theatre in Stoke Newington, Jess Staufenberg’s production of James Graham’s Ink is a bold and impressive realisation of an epic play.

I’ve admired James Graham’s work for quite some time, for the high levels of entertainment he brings to intense stories about real historical events. Nevertheless, I was cautious of this performance as plays like this are normally staged in major theatres with a large, high energy ensemble being essential to the enjoyment of them.

Fortunately I could not have been more wrong as the cast at the non-professional Tower Theatre did an excellent job of bringing alive the myriad of small parts involved in the story. Particular highlights include Harry Apps as uptight perfectionist Bernard Shrimsley and Steve Grist as bourgeois Mirror chairman Hugh Cudlipp.

The play tells the story of Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of the Sun and editor Larry Lamb’s struggle to make the tabloid the highest selling newspaper in Britain. It becomes a classic tale of someone’s morals becoming corrupted in pursuit of a goal, and Christopher Lloyd James as Larry Lamb, is convincing in the role, being both highly likeable in the first half of the play, before ending up downright menacing by the end.

The play initially seems like it’s about a classic Faustian bargain between Murdoch and Lamb, though as it goes on these lines begin to be slightly blurred, as Murdoch often attempts to act as a moral restrain on some of Lamb’s more shocking ideas, despite having instigated the vulgarity in the first place. Zane Fleming is suitably self confident in the role of the confident press baron, grinning out into the audience as the kind of man determined to remake the world in his own, obnoxious image.

This central relationship between Lamb and Murdoch is crucial to providing substance to back up the plays entertaining ensemble, whilst also being important to making this a story with larger themes corresponding to our modern world. By the end of this play it is clear that this is a dark origin story for the modern world, where a glib sense of fun has enabled the rise of the far right, and writing large why, ever since the play’s late 60s setting, men like Murdoch have always won.

Ink is an energetic and engaging rendition of a play which deserves to go down as a modern classic, and is playing until Saturday 13 June, tickets are £16.00.

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Photo Credit: Giulia Paratelli