one4review | On 25, Aug 2026

Holt plays the new Chancellor of the Exchequer who has just moved into No. 11 and, in an attempt to flex her ministerial muscle, decides she wants an ugly urinal removed from her office. The only problem is that the news leaks, there’s a public outcry, the urinal starts to develop a sense of self-awareness, and an angry mob begins to gather.

Holt, with material from Stewart Lee, wrote the play, which has had to be updated recently given the arrival of Saint Andy Burnham. But the political barbs remain, with plenty of The Thick of It/Yes, Prime Minister-style savagery; there’s something much more cinematic going on, drawing from Lindsay Anderson’s brilliant Britannia Hospital (1982), showing that across the decades and regardless of party allegiance, the pomposity and entitlement of MPs remain remarkably consistent.

Holt’s political comedy has always been sharp, but this is a different beast, with structure and space allowing her to take it somewhere new, and, for the most part, it is excellent. It’s angry, absurd and very funny that somehow a filthy old urinal becomes the perfect ceramic metaphor for Westminster’s cesspit.

4 stars ****
Reviewed by Steve H.
Lomond Theatre at Pleasance at EICC
Until 23rd August
20:30 – 21:40