In the Print Review: Rupert Murdoch's Wapping Dispute Takes Centre Stage in Tense Thriller
Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky's docudrama In the Print brings the fierce 1986-87 Wapping dispute between media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and print union leader Brenda Dean to life at London's King's Head theatre. The play explores the high-stakes conflict over newspaper production reforms, with Murdoch's use of subterfuge and a fake newspaper, The London Post, to establish a deunionised workforce at the Wapping plant.
A Glimpse into the Recent Past
As noted in Alan Bennett's The History Boys, the recent past can feel remote, caught between fallible memories and historical ignorance. This challenge is evident in In the Print, which attracted a diverse audience from Lord Kinnock, Labour leader during the depicted era, to younger viewers unfamiliar with Murdoch's News of the World, which closed in 2011.
Khan and Salinsky, known for plays like Kingmaker and The Gang of Three, deliver a briskly staged thriller directed by Josh Roche. The tension revolves around Murdoch's strategic moves against the print unions, highlighting his revolutionary contempt for British conventions. A pivotal moment features Murdoch telling Dean he is more of a revolutionary than leftwing union members.
Character Portrayals and Historical Nuance
Alan Cox offers a light impersonation of Murdoch, blending pragmatism and fanaticism, while Claudia Jolly's naturally likable Brenda Dean adds impact to her surprising actions. Russell Bentley shines in dual roles as the foul-mouthed Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie and an Australian Murdoch apparatchik.
Some minor characters, such as Trades Union Congress boss Norman Willis, are caricatured, with Willis shown reciting sonnets at press conferences. The script occasionally leans into easy hindsight irony, like a comment on Labour's new communications director "Peter" Mandelson being reliable. The biggest laugh comes from Kinnock's joke about mining union leader Arthur Scargill's shift from a big union and small house to a small union and big house.
Murdoch on Stage: From Fair-Minded to Satanic Depictions
Stage dramatisations of Murdoch range from James Graham's fair-minded Ink to last year's off-Broadway Murdoch: The Final Interview, which portrayed him as a Trump-enabling Satan. In the Print is energised by Murdoch's wrecking-ball approach, leaving audiences to ponder whether Dean was outplayed by a cleverer capitalist figure or if militant trade unionism was already doomed by Thatcherite reforms.
The play underscores the union mantra that "nobody wants yesterday's newspapers," which allowed exceptional demands until Wapping. Khan and Salinsky successfully transform yesterday's news into a headline event, running at the King's Head theatre until 3 May.
