One of the biggest stars of the 1970s was the professional lard-bucket Mick McManus, who plied his trade as an all-in wrestler. The sport was televised to millions. The parents of the playwright Michael McManus must have calculated that by giving their child the same name as ‘The Dulwich Destroyer’ they would subtly galvanise his intellectual ambitions. Their ploy paid off. The young Michael McManus, lumbered with the identity of a potato-shaped pugilist, seems to have toiled night and day to distinguish himself from his pot-bellied namesake. He succeeded in establishing his intellectual credentials by working as a political diarist, a ministerial adviser, and by writing well-received biographies of Jo Grimond and Ted Heath.
His new play, An Honourable Man, imagines the formation of a post-Brexit centrist party under the leadership of a popular Labour MP, Joe Newman. Deselected by Momentum, Joe stands as an independent against a Corbynite stooge. He wins. Waves of popular acclaim greet this victory and he sets about reshaping British politics from the centre-left.
Joe is a man for our times. The gay son of Czech refugees, he’s able to talk about immigration and LGBTQ rights without being accused of bias. Yet he seems too drippy, too uncharismatic, too much of a plodder to lead a revolt against the establishment. And it’s unclear what he really stands for. Pressed to reveal his core beliefs, he shrugs: ‘I’m on the side of the underdog.’ But sympathy for losers is an emotional reflex, not a political creed. The script delivers a few semi-adolescent asides. ‘The job titles are filthy,’ comments one of Joe’s chums, ‘Chief Whip, Black Rod, Honourable Member.’
McManus has asked a lot of well-placed pals to add authenticity to the production. Su Pollard provides the voiceovers.
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