THE REMAINS OF LOGAN DANKWORTH Completes Luke Wright’s stunning trilogy

Posted on 16th March 2020

It was perhaps inevitable that in the third of Luke Wright’s trilogy of political monologues he would come bang up to date with an examination of Brexit. In previous outings, in the company of Johnny Bevan and Frankie Vah, Wright had explored the clash between private and political lives to brilliant effect. Here, we learnt of Logan Dankworth, and what remains of his student politics in the face of his ambivalent rise as a political pundit.

Once again, Wright avoids easy answers and tidy resolution as Dankworth, neither hero nor villain, tries but fails to juggle his failing marriage with his vainglorious rise as a minor celebrity. Dankworth is an everyman, keen to stick to his principles so long as they don’t conflict with convenience or ambition. Some might quibble with his choice of Southend (which I understand is undergoing a renaissance at the moment) as the nadir of civilisation, but the metro centric point is made.

Taken as a whole, these three plays not only represent key moments in recent political history, but add up to a superb and (dare I say it) important body of work, which not only reinvent the dramatic form, but remind us, in clear and painful steps, how we got from there to here.