Interview: 'There's A Time Capsule Element To It': Actor Alan Cox on Returning to THE GANG OF THREE

After a sell-out run, The Gang of Three has returned to the UK, starting with a run at London’s King’s Head Theatre and then going on tour. The play, written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, follows Tony Crosland (Alan Cox), Roy Jenkins (Hywel Morgan) and Denis Healey (Colin Tierney) as they work to save the Labour Party in the 1970s.

Recently, we had the chance to speak with Alan Cox, who returns to the role of Tony Crosland in The Gang of Three. We discussed how he got into the world of theatre through Shakespeare and comedy, what he hopes audiences take away from the show and how he’s grown to appreciate silence in the theatre.

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What originally made you want to be a part of The Gang of Three?

It's very nice to be offered a job! Without wanting to be too disingenuous. And also, the writers. I did Kingmaker, Impossible and then this. Then I did another play of theirs, In The Print, earlier this year. So I'm very lucky that I found writers who appreciate what I bring to their hard work. Being a freelancer in this wicked world, to have continuity is a blessing in a way.  I'm sure I'm sixth choice like everybody else, but they spun a good yarn of why I was the man for the job!

For those who might be unfamiliar with it, can you tell us a bit about The Gang of Three and Tony Crosland? 

Tony Crosland was the Member of Parliament for Grimsby from the late 50s till when he died in 1977. He was Oxford-educated. He served in the war, like many men of that age. When the three of us met for the read-through, we'd done the research. Kirsty Patrick Ward had sent us this Giles Radice book called Friends and Rivals, which is a triple biography of them and their careers. We were all touched by the fact that they'd served. They would have been young men just out of Oxford, serving in this war to end all wars, and then having enough intellect and ambition to believe that they could make the world a better, safer, more secure place.

So it's about these three contemporaries, Labour politicians, who are looking at the dynamics of the Labour Party, trying to make sure that the philosophy and ideals that that party represents is the one that's in power and looks after its people. But, they realise that there are factions within any big group, and that sometimes they need to bury their own grievances or demands of their egos in order to secure the party. And, they all believed that they had it in them to be leader. 

And what was it like to return to The Gang of Three?

It was an intense show and very enjoyable to do, and it did very well! We had good houses, and we got good write-ups. And for the three of us, you then have got an extra sense that the show might have a future life because people are making that noise. So consequently, when you're watching the news and following current affairs, there's a little mental file that you're taking about what's eternal and what's changing. We have a different leader at the Labour Party. The political stage is still horrific in the same way it was fourteen months ago. But yes, something's been working away on a subconscious level, and we're all feeling that we are inhabiting these roles a lot more, even though we haven't done fourteen months of performances. There is a feeling that it's settled somewhere in the unconscious. So it's hugely enjoyable to perform and play keepy-uppy with two colleagues and contemporaries. 

What was the rehearsal process like coming back to the show for this run? 

Kirsty Patrick Ward, the director, she'd done some fantastic dramaturgical work first time round - incredibly thorough in her research! She and the writers had made some adjustments for this iteration, more in terms of streamlining rather than adding new jokes. So we just slowly started putting it back on its feet, remembering the dance of it and the audience reactions to it. We had three weeks, which is luxurious for a remount, and we just drilled it very hard. It sounds a bit naff, but it's like chamber music. It's the taradiddles of people who think in big long thoughts, trained orators and debaters. So the process was about finding the flow, refining the details and repetition, repetition, repetition. The French call rehearsals répétition!

What is it like playing this character who is based on a real person? 

Well, it's slightly different for me than it is for Hywel [Morgan] and Colin [Tierney], because just speaking personally, Tony Crosland wasn't someone who existed in my cultural memory, but I was aware of Denis Healey and Roy Jenkins. So there are recordings of Tony, and of course I studied them, but there wasn't a feeling that the audience would recognise an old friend being reincarnated, whereas with the other two, there is that feeling.

And also, the audiences that we've attracted in left-wing Islington, bring a lot of knowledge - more knowledge than I certainly have about this world and the history of it! In the way they react to the text, that invites you to go towards something and some awareness, because they're bringing their knowledge to it. Quite literally, when you've got Neil Kinnock, the former Leader of the Labour Party, sitting in the audience, and he's been to see the play twice! He did a post-show discussion after the performance last week, and it was like we were the prologue to his evening of reminiscences and questions and answers that he gave. 

What do you hope audiences take away from The Gang of Three? 

My hope is that it encourages study of politics and history. Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. People say, “It's just another case of history repeating,” and then someone else will say, “History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.” And also, a thing about getting older is you become more interested in the world before you got here, before you stepped onto this great stage of fools. And also, Tony Crosland is a very intelligent, smart man, and the book that he wrote, The Future of Socialism, in the 1950s, was an extraordinary template for philosophical, political thought, and an idealistic version of a welfare state. 

Right-leaning people should argue with it; left-leaning people should be empowered to be more active in their political lives. We all vote, and you go, “Well, what else can we do?” When you're not working, you become aware of what the support in your country is, and we need to challenge privilege and lift up the less fortunate. Seems very simple to me.

And, it's weird to describe the 70s as sexy, but you we've got some we've got some banging tunes that set the place. We've got The Who, we've got the Sparks, we've got really brilliantly chosen music that just puts you in the time. There's something about the post-'60s rock and roll that's very evocative for me as a man, age 56, born in 1970. There's a time capsule element to it, a time-travel joy to be found in it. 

And finally, how would you describe The Gang of Three in one word? 

Unifying. It's the gang of three, but they're challenged to find a shared path. There's talking about unification within the party, and healing rifts between divisions. Because also, what you want in an audience is moments where they all come together, and then they're allowed to fragment.