I once knew someone very similar to how Liz Truss is portrayed in Greg Wilkinson’s one-person play. This person played a musical instrument – very badly. So badly that they were often asked to stop playing because the sound they produced was so painful and inaccurate, yet they could not understand why they were asked not to play – after all, they were having lessons and their teacher assured them they were improving, when in fact they were just playing as badly, but louder and more confidently, but because they had no self-awareness they felt that nothing was their fault and the world was just picking on them!
Mary Elizabeth Truss comes across as just this sort of person! The UK’s 56th Prime Minister, remaining in office for the record shortest time of 44 days, and with no self-awareness at all.
Before the interval, we learn about her ‘early years’ and rise to power, her ‘grooming’ by the Tory party, the election in Norfolk that she won in what was then a very safe seat, where she was shoehorned in even though the local constituency party did not want her, realising her flaws even if she didn’t. Then we learn about her various ministerial posts, all of which, with hindsight, seem to have been failures, before her rise to the ultimate job in Act Two. I was expecting to find that The Last Days of Liz Truss? was a comedy, when in fact it is a very sad portrayal of a total failure who does not realise that she is. Emma Wilkinson Wright is very successful, especially physically, in portraying her, getting the walk and the stance just right! Very perceptive! The voice at times has a true ‘Truss’ edge to it, especially when she is making a speech from the lectern.
The second part, dealing with her time in the ‘top job’ whilst she waits for Ian Brady to call at Number 10 to tell her that her premiership is over, seems more effective than the first half, perhaps because we are more familiar with the story: everything collapsing about her owing to her total mismanagement of the economy leading to Britain teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as she reversed all her policies: anything to stay in power! The last fifteen minutes are not as then stringently written as the rest of the play, almost as if the playwright could not make up his mind how to finish it, but the whole piece gives much food for thought, as well as opportunity for discussion afterwards, even if there were some members of the audience in their early twenties who, during the interval, could be heard asking loudly who on earth were Kwasi Kwarteng, Gavin Williamson and Jacob Rees-Mogg: but they would have been in their teens during Truss’ short time in the highest office!
Steve Nallon gives pre-recorded voice-over impressions of Margaret Thatcher and other politicians of the time, whilst direction is by Anthony Shrubsall.
A fascinating evening of historical politics – complete with lettuce! Recommended to those who are deeply interested in and followers of politics and politicians, as well as cynics! A poignant reminder of a government clinging on to power when all their original ideas, if they ever had any, have all been used up, more than once!
Review by John Groves
Join Liz, on her last morning at number 10, in an exploration – equally comic and tragic – of the tensions in politics: between ambition and ability, vision and reality, going short and playing it long.
Can a fighter ever quit?
Emma Wilkinson Wright as Liz Truss
Steve Nallon as The Voice of Margaret Thatcher and Others
Greg Wilkinson – Writer
Anthony Shrubsall – Director
Male Arcucci – Set and Costume Design
Tom Younger – Lighting Design
Arabella Dear – LX Operator and Stage Manager
Ryan O’Grady – Voice Coach
Mandy Gordon – Movement Director
THE LAST DAYS OF LIZ TRUSS?
The Other Palace
3 to 15 March 2026
