The 1970s were a time of turbulence in British politics. The Labour Party, having held power during much of the 1960s, lost the 1970 general election and entered a period in opposition, struggling to define its identity in a changing world. This play by Robert Kahn and Tom Salinsky focuses on three major characters in that struggle: Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey and Anthony Crosland.
It is a play about political ideas, but primarily about the personalities of these three titans of the Labour movement. They understand the importance of working together in order to create a united vision for the Labour Party, but their ability to support one another is undermined by their personal ambitions. One suspects that this is a universal problem with political egos and so makes much of the content of this play highly relevant to today.
The three actors Alan Cox (Crosland), Hywel Morgan (Jenkins) and Colin Tierney (Healey) all gave sterling performances and played off each other extremely well. They made efforts to represent their historical characters physically with mixed success but that really did not matter because the importance of this play is in the words. The setting was simple: a large, impressive bookcase formed the background to the five scenes, using the minimum of furniture required, which was wheeled on by the cast members.
The theatricality of the piece was brought out by each of the cast members occasionally addressing the audience directly while the action was paused. The dialogue was very pacy and extremely humorous with some wonderful one liners. The play was only one hour 25 minutes without an interval, and I was not sure why the director (Kirsty Patrick Ward) had chosen to rush through the dialogue quite so quickly. There would have been time for a more moderated pace.
Between the various scenes there were some descriptions of the political and economic events of the time. Unfortunately, these were accompanied by rather loud music which made them difficult to hear. For anyone like this reviewer who had lived through these times, the narrative resonated wonderfully but I did wonder how a younger audience might understand the background, and therefore more visual and/or lengthier descriptions might have been helpful.
Altogether however, this is an extremely enjoyable evening of theatre with a good text and excellent performances bringing to life a well-researched historical piece with contemporary relevance.
The Gang of Three is playing at the Richmond Theatre until 17th October and then touring. Tickets are available at www.atgtickets.com
Reviewer: Paul Ackroyd
Reviewed: 15th October 2026
North West End UK Rating: