Duality

The play is structured around duality, both in its staging and its themes. At its core is the dynamic of Britain’s two-party parliamentary system, which sets up Labour and the Conservatives as ideological opposites locked in a constant battle for power. This duality is reinforced visually and spatially in the play’s staging, with the government and opposition Whips’ offices occupying the same physical space but being occupied by different characters depending on which party is in control. The shifting power between these two offices mirrors the broader fluctuations of political fortune, emphasizing the precariousness of parliamentary rule and the sense that victory and defeat are often two sides of the same coin. The Labour Whips’ hard-fought survival in government is always on the edge of collapse, while the Conservative opposition, eager to take power, must bide their time until the pendulum inevitably swings in...