On the day the resignations from Boris Johnson’s government began coming thick and fast, I was sitting in a rehearsal room at the Prince of Wales theatre in London among a group of potential “angels” or investors for a reading of the actor Patrick Ryecart’s play, Carrie on Boris.
It’s a Westminster farce about a Westminster farce, and, while it is not done to name actors who appear at readings, I’d say they did spirited renditions of Boris and Carrie Johnson, Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg, among others, with Ryecart himself – best known these days for two series of The Crown – standing in as Stanley Johnson. It was near-the-knuckle stuff, but it has apparently been read for libel.
Ryecart jokes that he reckons it was his trouser-dropping comedy that finally drove Johnson over the edge.
