The Cabinet Minister
Closing: November 16, 2024The Cabinet Minister - West End History , Info & More
Menier Chocolate Factory
53 Southwark St, London SE1 1RU, United Kingdom London
Arthur Wing Pinero’s breathless farce THE CABINET MINISTER is given a new life in a brand-new adaptation by Nancy Carroll directed by Paul Foster.
Sir Julian Twombley is in trouble: his wife and son have run up massive debts and his political reputation is in the balance. The House of Commons is far from a safe space for him and the newspapers are sniffing blood. Can he save face and hang on to his sanity?
Joining Nancy Carroll are George Blagden, Joe Edgar, Phoebe Fildes, Rosalind Ford, Dom Hodson, Dillie Keane, Nicholas Rowe, Laurence Ubong Williams, Romaya Weaver, and Matthew Woodyatt. This crack cast tackles this sparkling story of marriage, blackmail and class where all bets are off!
The Cabinet Minister - - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Cabinet Minister
The Cabinet Minister, Menier Chocolate Factory, review: a formidably funny skewering of Britain’s obsession with class
9 / 10
This delightfully pacy, elegant and stylish new adaptation by Nancy Carroll (who also stars as Lady Katherine Twombley) positively brims with vitality, full of salacious double entendres and unmistakable contemporary political allusions. With an enchanting set and period-costume design by Janet Bird, the four-act play, set between the Twombley’s conservatory in London and a Scottish castle where the family have decamped to facilitate a marriage proposal for their daughter from a wealthy nobleman, is directed with a winning combination of levity, riotous exuberance and occasional moral seriousness by Paul Foster.
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.
by Chloe Rabinowitz - September 30, 2024
See what the critics are saying about The Cabinet Minister at Menier Chocolate Factory. Arthur Wing Pinero’s farce is given a new life in a brand-new adaptation by Nancy Carroll. Learn more and see how to purchase tickets.
by Cindy Marcolina - September 28, 2024
Sir Julian Twombley is in hot water when it’s discovered that his family has been living way beyond his House of Commons’ wages. This isn’t the latest front page of a Daily Mail-made political attack, it’s the premise of one of Arthur Wing Pinero’s later comedies. Though Victorian farce isn’t exactly all the rage at the moment, The Cabinet Minister is so unfortunately relevant and timely you’d never think it was written in 1890.
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