Great Britain review – from phone hacking to MPs’ expenses

Richard Bean doesn’t do things by halves. His new satirical comedy has a go at press, police and politicians, and covers just about every scandal of the past five years from phone-hacking to MPs’ expenses. But, while his play is as broad as it is long (close to three hours) and attacks too many targets, it has the bracing quality of topicality and is written with real verve. Bean’s chief bile is reserved for the newspapers, here represented by a fictional tabloid called the Free Press (though glancing references are made to a paper called the Guardener whose masthead boasts “we think so you don’t have to”). At the Free Press, the mission statement is “we go out and destroy other people’s lives on your behalf”. And, although it has a multimedia Irish proprietor and a foul-mouthed editor, the chief focus is on Paige Britain, its dynamic news editor who has little time for democracy and whose chief urge is to be part of the country’s ruling elite.