Great Britain, National’s Lyttelton Theatre, review: ‘Laughter gives way to shame’

Has Richard Bean put the “Grrr” back into Great Britain? His new play – hot off the presses at the National, having been rehearsed in secret during the tail-end of the £100m phone-hacking trial – was fuelled, we’re told, by blazing anger. Best known for that runaway farcical hit One Man, Two Guvnors, Bean has been incensed by the intrusive, illegal carry-on in Fleet Street and the merry-go-round of cronyism and corruption that has shaken public faith in police and politics too. “20 people who talk to 20 people who talk to 20 people,” is how he thinks the country has been run. He has penned a vitriolic, bluntly entertaining comedy that initially has the audience tickled pink with its levity, then finally blushing red with national shame. At first, it’s as if Bean – a former stand-up who loves gags clever, coarse or corny – might have been watching too many episodes of TV sketch show Little Britain. Taking us into the offices of a nasty, formerly lefty tabloid called The Free Press, he introduces us to a gallery of vipers, weasels and leeches, caricatures all.