Ian Hislop & Nick Newman’s Cad, an uber-stereotypical posh boy buffoon, bears no relation to any politicians, past, present or future. Yeah right.
Ian Hislop & Nick Newman’s The Autobiography of a Cad
at The Watermill, Bagnor
until March 22
Review by NIKI HINMAN
OMG! It could be Boris Johnson, says Grace, my theatre date for the world premiere of The Autobiography of a Cad at The Watermill.
It’s Ian Hislop (him of Private Eye) and Nick Newman’s latest - chronicling the rise of self-proclaimed political titan Edward Percival Fox-Ingleby from Eton to Oxford and then on to Parliament.
“Cad is not unlike [Boris Johnson’s] Unleashed in tone: the self-justifying and presentation of your truth as the only thing that matters,” Ian Hislop tells Prospect Magazine.
James Mack playing the eponymous ‘Cad’ is a pantomime version of a Tory politician, suitably camp, utterly entitled, and just a turn of the dial away from the political reality played out when BoJo was in charge. He delivers a full-on uber-stereotypical posh boy buffoon with some very clear notes of Hislop sneer.
Based on AG Macdonell's 1938 satirical masterpiece and set in the decades before and after World War One, The Autobiography of a Cad follows in the rich tradition of outrageously subversive British humour.
If you put the book into ChatGPT and asked it to produce a modern day satirical magazine, Private Eye would pop out of the workings.
The first half could have been shorter, but the rule of ‘would I rather be ironing my sheets than going back for the second act’ needed no enforcement. Go and see it.
There are some laugh-out-loud scenes with Fox-Ingleby’s spectral Granny, delivered with superb comic timing by Rhiannon Neads - who plays Mrs Appleby and others. Granny being an other.
And a wonderfully timed shooting scene, with Fox-Ingleby supported by Mitesh Soni as Mr Collins and others. And staging hilarity courtesy of some toy pheasants.
Huge praise goes to both the supporting cast, who in the words of my drama teacher friend Grace provided ‘an absolute masterclass in character acting’. They were on and off the stage so quickly the backstage staff must have Formula One style costume change routines.
The Cad's story contains all the hallmarks of success: university escapades with friends taking the blame, courageously signing up to be on the administrative frontline of the First World War effort and doing the decent thing and joining the Tory party in the 1920s.
As the blurb says - this happily fictitious memoir about serving the nation bears no relation to any politicians, past, present or future.
Yeah right.
The Autobiography of a Cad is directed by Paul Hart, assisted by Elsa Strachan, with set and costume design by Ceci Calf, with lighting design by Charly Dunford, sound design by Steven Atkinson and projection design by Rachel Sampley.
