Imagine a zombie Winston Churchill, slobbering and drunk, delivering one of his trademark rousing speeches to you through a hole in a half-destroyed urinal. You’d have a fairly good idea of what it is like to be an audience member in Rosie Holt’s Churchill’s Urinal.
The show is 70 minutes of non-stop chaos as the protagonist, played by Holt and heavily inspired by first female Chancellor Rachel Reeves, simultaneously deals with an overbearing boss, incompetent assistant, and indifferent soon-to-be-ex-husband, all while a mob gathers outside her office, calling for her head. The cause? Her wish to remove a urinal from the Chancellor’s private bathroom which was once used by Sir Winston Churchill and is thus classed a national treasure.
This sets the stage for a sharply scripted satire on the state of British politics today. Of course, the show is filled with snipes at the usual culprits— Liz Truss, Keir Starmer, Reform —but it also asks some necessary questions about the country’s political conscience. For example, what is the cost of our obsession with Winston Churchill and the glories of Britain past? Why do we so readily accept threats of gruesome violence against our female politicians but are unwilling to entertain the notion of tearing down a urinal used by a long-dead man? And perhaps most importantly, what happened to our collective common sense? It is when asking these questions that Churchill’s Urinal goes beyond a dramatised stand-up routine and finds its feet as a nuanced and intelligent commentary.
Which is not to say that the show isn’t utterly hilarious. Holt delivers a confident performance as she leads the audience through the snowballing catastrophe. She moves between emotions with a natural command and communicates with off-screen, invisible characters with ease. Michael Lambourne, who plays Churchill in urinal form, plays exaggeration with exactness and his physical comedy in particular engenders some of the show’s biggest laughs. There is never an awkward moment despite some intricate prop-work and choreography, courtesy the precise direction of Daniel Clarkson.
The show truly shines when it involves the audience in its delivery. At one point in the production, Holt asks an audience member to hold a bucket while has another hold her hair as she panic-vomits into the bucket. At another, she has a back and forth with the men in the audience about feminism, returning to the plot by telling her assistant “Sorry Sophie, I was just explaining men to men.” These moments bring the theatre alive and highlight Holt’s natural charisma when interacting with an audience.
If you are looking for a show filled with unadulterated fun and political gaffs while a woman descends into frustrated mania as she confers with an upright latrine, Churchill’s Urinal is not to be missed.
Churchill’s Urinal is showing at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington until 6th June 2026 and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 13th-23rd August 2026.
Reviewer: Saloni Sanwalka
Reviewed: 19th May 2026
North West End UK Rating: