Blanche McIntyre

Haphazard and bitty but Rosie Holt is superb: Churchill’s Urinal reviewed

When Rachel Reeves became Chancellor she found a lavatory in her private suite which had been used by Churchill in the 1920s. She vowed to remove it. ‘Smashing glass ceilings and urinals’ was her policy. The actor, Rosie Holt, felt inspired by Reeves’s petulance and she wrote a satire about a female politician who sets out to refit the pipes at No. 11. The Chancellor sits in her office taking phone calls from a secretary, a spin doctor and a divorce lawyer who wants her to finalise a settlement with her awkward ex-husband. Her campaign to replace the loo sparks national outrage and her office is besieged by throngs of far-right agitators. All are men. The urinal itself, played by a Churchill lookalike, becomes a personality in the play and offers advice: ‘Stand your ground.