The Stage

The Prince Among Men

Published Wednesday 1 February 2006 at 13:25 by Evelyn Curlet

A boys’ boarding school, a dirty election, a healthy dose of Machiavelli and a soundtrack that includes bursts of the Jam, the Clash and the Killers and you have both a pertinent play about the nature of politics and an entertaining one too.

In Eric Henry Sanders’ witty script, thuggish Bozo (Jonathan Baker) is persuaded to run for the position of head boy, against the priggish but earnest Woody (Giles Faulkner). Baker turns in a fine performance as an over-privileged, under-achieving bully, swinging between lazy stupidity and swaggering arrogance. His comic timing is spot on, as is his transformation into mini-tyrant. Faulkner creates a sympathetic character in Woody, a student too academic and square to win the hearts of the voters, despite his better intentions.

Sanders’ play is highly amusing and director Sasha Regan bolsters the humour by keeping the production full of energy, with animated performances and action. The play flags a little when the parallel between the school election and the George Bush-Al Gore election becomes too laboured. The portrait of the school and its students, at first highly believable, is rendered more unlikely in order to support the parody.

However, as a whole the show is undeniably entertaining. Hamish Stansfeld is delightful as renegade Marxist oddball Nit, flouting authority and gatecrashing the election platform to air his anti-establishment views, naively combative and scruffy. But the final accolade must go to Anthony Wise as deputy head Professor Renfield, an outstanding and masterfully comic portrait of a distracted and erratic schoolmaster.