Theatre Review: The Gang of Three

Ioan Phillips

It’s a general rule of thumb that plays about Welsh political figures are usually compelling.

The Gang of Three has a Welsh protagonist, in the form of Roy Jenkins (Hywel Morgan), but it isn’t quite a Boyo With a Backstory™ tale.

Written by seasoned political serialists Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, who previously directed TV hits Coalition and Brexit, The Gang of Three focuses on the rivalry between Jenkins and his fellow Labour Party big beasts, Denis Healey (Colin Tierney) and Anthony Crosland (Alan Cox).

The play’s vignettes span the 1970s, showing the trio debating the future of the Labour Party, which conveniently overlaps with their political ambitions. There is one break from the chronology, where we’re taken to wartime Oxford University for a snapshot of intimacy that’s between purported to have existed between Jenkins and Crosland.

Youthful dalliance

Frustratingly, the play doesn’t explore the effect of this youthful dalliance on their future political relationship (bar several arch allusions).

The other noticeable absence in The Gang of Three is the lack of any real exploration of why each protagonist held the beliefs that they did.

It’s made very clear that Jenkins is a passionate Europhile (at one point Crosland mocks this fixation with some direct Anglo-Saxon), but the audience is left none the wiser as to how Jenkins developed that world-view.

Personal ambition

Instead, the main question, looming large throughout, is whether sacrificing personal ambition might’ve brought about the political outcomes each man sought.

You don’t need an intimate grasp of 1970s Labour Party politics to grasp the theme – though, helpfully, wider context is provided by some well-timed voiceover narration.

The performances of Morgan, Tierney, and Cox are nuanced, avoiding caricature (a feat that’s even more impressive considering the volume of contemporary comic material covering Jenkins and Healey).

Morgan’s portrayal of a simultaneously self-confident yet vulnerable Jenkins particularly stands out.

The Gang of Three possesses a lot of the elements needed for good political theatre: a clever set, sharp script, and interesting protagonists – strengths that, when taken together, cancel out the ambiguity about whether the play is a drama or political-history-as-comedy. Nonetheless, it’s a thoroughly compelling watch.

The Gang of Three is playing at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington, until Sunday 1 June. Tickets are available here.