A MODEST LITTLE MAN at Upstairs at The Gatehouse

A comedy about the creator of the welfare stateBy Francis BeckettMay 1945. Britain celebrates victory and cheers Winston Churchill. The people who fought the war want a better world. But the Labour Party is led by a nonentity a modestlittle man with plenty to be modest about. He says almost nothing. He sits in his grey suit and puffs his pipe. One wit remarked: An empty taxi drew up and Clement Attlee got out.How can the insignificant, passionless little Labour leader Clem Attlee possibly compete with Churchill?What the critics saidThis is one of the most enjoyable fringe shows I have seen in agesReviewsgateA very funny and at times moving account of Clement AttleeNew StatesmanFrancis Becketts comic play, A Modest Little Man, offers a splendid illustrationof Attlees towering absence of egoBroadway WorldBecketts supreme achievement is to render all the affectionately drawnkey characters of the time accessible, engaging and inspiring