Great Britain, National Theatre, review: Billie Piper ‘excellent’ as tabloid editor

Clearly nobody from a rival outfit has been hacking the phones of dramatist Richard Bean and the National Theatre’s artistic director Nicholas Hytner or they wouldn’t have been able to spring this bracing surprise on us. Last Tuesday, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was convicted of conspiracy to hack phones. The next morning at a hastily convened press conference, the NT announced Great Britain, a satire by Bean about the cosy, corrupting relationship between sections of the press, the police and the political establishment. The theatrical world is as prone to tight-lipped secrecy as a Trappist monastery to uncontrollable gossip so it’s a real wonder that the NT has been able to keep this project – which has been in rehearsals for months – under wraps. Does it live up to its unusual occasion? By and large, yes. This is laughter-making on an industrial scale (to adapt a phrase) and it’s a farce with fangs.