Posh, Duke of York’s Theatre

It is tough to beat the impeccable timing of the original production of Laura Wade’s satire on the upper classes, which premiered in the lead-up to the last general election. But with the Tories now in government and questions of wealth and privilege firmly in the political spotlight, it remains an appropriate time to stage a drama scrutinising those at the top. Wade’s play takes on the ranks of the elite by spending one evening in the company of exclusive Oxford dining society the Riot Club, a thinly fictionalised version of the Bullingdon Club, where the young privileged get wasted and raise extravagant hell. These young men, however, are not content to merely indulge in lavish hedonism and trash the country gastropub where they have hired a dining room for the night. In their swaggering, drunken opinion, it is time that their influence, power and heritage is recognised and respected again. It is time to, in the Club’s words, “carpe some fucking diem”.

The riotous dinner that demands most of the stage time is framed – quite literally – by two scenes in the equally exclusive club of political power, where a former Riot Club member and current Tory influencer talks first with his godson Guy, a slimily eager to impress Joshua McGuire, and later with a defiant Club outcast. Huge gold-framed portraits adorn the back wall of Anthony Ward’s claustrophobic red-decked design, which are pulled away to unveil the scene of the Club’s revelry. The structure appropriately reflects a chilling and not altogether far-fetched idea that membership of such a club sits within a broader membership of those who hold the reins of country. After all, the Bullingdon Club boasts David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson as alumni.

For the most part, though, this is slickly comic toff-baiting, with Wade perceptively delineating every excruciating verbal tick of the young, male and very rich. There are moments when the drunken dinner table banter feels almost like The Inbetweeners, just with deeper pockets and public school educations. Funny? Certainly. Crude? Undeniably, cringingly so. Incisive? That is where Wade begins to falter. While her writing may be sharp enough with its hilarious, killing one-liners – “the National Trust are holding us to ransom” stands out as a shining example – there is the sense that this ignorantly self-entitled pocket of privilege is being poked at rather than skewered. We laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of these characters’ opinions, but there are few barbs that stick in the throat after the laughter has dissipated.

The appreciative chuckles in the stalls seem often to be born of mocking recognition, raising concerns that this is fostering just the kind of casual class smugness that it depicts, albeit emanating from the other end of the political spectrum. Only in the moments before the interval, as Leo Bill’s indignant, rage-spitting Alistair argues with absolute conviction why he and his peers need to claim back their stranglehold on the country, does the full repulsiveness of what is being portrayed begin to slap the audience full in the face. Then, in one of the production’s canniest moves, we are forced to applaud this speech. Yet the viciousness that follows in the second act, while wincing, never fully persuades.

This updated Royal Court transfer has been given a production as smooth and polished as the protagonists’ family silver, with a cast who put in uniformly, excellently grotesque performances, but the polish of Lyndsey Turner’s slick production has buffed away at the harshness of what is being exposed. While there is a rotting nastiness at the core of the play, it is all too often plastered over with comedy and ultimately does little to address the state of affairs it depicts. Savage, yes, but perhaps not quite in the way Wade had hoped.

Catherine Love, 22, is a recent English graduate who combines a part-time job in the magazine publishing industry with freelancing as an arts journalist. She has written for publications including the Guardian, Exeunt, IdeasTap, Spoonfed and What’s On Stage.

She reviewed Posh at Duke of York’s Theatre. All three judges selected her “well-written review, which mixes impressive knowledge of the theatre world as a whole with insightful comments on the production”.