The Cabinet Minister
7 / 10
The satire here is, charitably, broad. Strip away the social hypocrisy, Pinero says, and the moneylenders and blackmailers are basically politicians without a parliament. A modern-day coda in this version doesn’t add anything cleverer. But you don’t turn to farce for nuanced or incisive commentary . What stops this production from being truly great, as funny as some of its lines and scenes are, is the lack of that singular and relentless escalation you find in the best of the genre. In spite of Carroll’s changes, there’s too much going on, too many trifling side-plots, in every way. It doesn’t build to that perfect pinnacle of comedic disaster.
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