Wherever you stand on the current political situation, it's good to see theatre willing to engage with it. Whether that can compensate for overall quality, is, however, another matter.
The scenario of this Dr Strangelove-style revue is, literally, a nightmare. An amusingly infantalised George W Bush, in pyjamas and carrying an enormous teddy bear, dreams that a thuggish US commander has accidentally ordered two soldiers in the US Air Force to drop a nuclear bomb on 'Iraquistan', before committing suicide. A madcap hunt by the hapless administration for the code to reverse the command, egged on by Tony Blear, ensues to avoid Armageddon.
The play is supposed to be updated as the real war unfolds - the best example being Blear complaining Dubya had flown to Dublin instead of Belfast for the recent summit - but this happens infrequently.
Writer Justin Butcher has fun with Bush's idiosyncratic grasp of language and politics but elsewhere the satire is misdirected - the two soldiers are depicted as sluggish layabouts, but if anything typifies American behaviour in the Middle East it's surely the opposite.
Bush initially can't remember the country he is president of: again, the point about Bush is precisely the opposite. Nicholas Burns gets Tony Blair's sanctimonious arrogance just right but, at a cumbersome two hours and 45 minutes, this show is far from being quick, deadly and up-to-speed.
The Madness Of George Dubya
