The Persians (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

Ian (Liam Brennan), a Tory government minister has invited 2 'colleagues' to his office for a meeting, although both are unaware that only they have been invited and the nature of the subject to be discussed.  Mary (Meghan Tyler, who also wrote the play) is a young MP from the party tenuously holding up the May government, the DUP, while Kirstin (Irene Allan) is called in to represent the views of the SNP Scottish Government.  A petition to reinstate the death penalty has been submitted to parliament and the Westminster regime wants to quietly assess the views of the devolved administrations.  The writer also wants to give a nod to all those old "There was an Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman" jokes....

It all starts very decorously with tea and biscuits.  But when the politicians find they've been rumbled by the press, and a discrete exit is impossible, they are forced back together.  They must agree on a standpoint if they are to escape.  Kirstin explains that the ancient Persians used to make their most important decisions only after becoming uproariously drunk.  And when tea and biscuits make way for port and brandy the 'meeting' turns into something far more outre, as the drunk phase later gives way to hangovers, then reflection.

A satire on the polarisation of politics, and of politicians whose decision making techniques isn't all that far removed from those Persians.  A world where rational debate of contentious subjects gets ever more difficult and where some people will even look for an answer in a self confessed sexual abuser and reality TV star.  While the Tory and SNP characters have elements of caricature about them, the DUP woman breaks the mould of her party with surprisingly progressive views and jokes about the dinosaurs.  It's very funny, and manages to hit out at several targets across the political spectrum with a chance to offend everybody! 

In many ways a sad reflection on what our politics has become, and the dangers posed by extremism.  And an acknowledgement that what might have worked in centuries past didn't have to cope with the hazards of the internet age....

And enjoyable end to the P,P & P series.