Whipping It Up

WHIPPING It Up, the sell-out smash hit comedy tours to the Theatre Royal Bath for one week only.

Steve Thompson's timely, hilarious political satire opened at the Bush Theatre in London in November last year, and was extended due to public demand.

Now, this scandalously funny play, which stars Richard Wilson as the Chief Whip, visits Bath on tour direct from the West End.

Thompson's razor-sharp comedy explores the machinations of Government, exposing the infamous workings of the Whips' Office. Multi-award winning director and playwright Terry Johnson directs the cast, which includes Wilson - who is best known as Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave - Owen Brenman, Timothy Watson, Will Beer, Natalie Walter and Abigail Thaw.

Whipping It Up is set in the precarious early days of a future David Cameron government, which clings on to a tiny majority of three. A week before Christmas, a seemingly straightforward piece of legislation suddenly takes on absurd political significance and, with the PM chummying up to the President in Washington, every trick is needed to keep the strays in line, particularly when there's already the whiff of a leadership challenge in the air.

Battle-weary veterans of the game, the Chief Whip (Richard Wilson) and smooth-talking deputy Alastair (Owen Brenman), are given the chance to pass on the mysteries of their Machiavellian craft to sharp-suited new boy Tim (Will Beer), whose chosen weapons are rather more brutal than the delicate threat of a threat' employed by the old guard. They're in for a long night, with boy scouts and ramblers threatening to riot in Whitehall, five Tory rebels on the loose, and both the press and the opposition rising to the scent of panic. MPs are manoeuvred like chess pieces as the evening progresses, but will the Whips manage to avoid checkmate without having to reveal the secrets hidden in their closely guarded safe?

Box Office (01225) 448844.