✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Theatre

Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review ★★★★★

09 Sep 17 – 06 Jan 18, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

James Graham's satire about the rise of The Sun newspaper is a shrewd insight into the gutter press, and our appetite for sensation

By CW Contributor on 21/9/2017

9 CW readers are interested
Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review [STAR:5]
Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review [STAR:5]
Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review 5 Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review Kareema Al-Adhami
‘One year and a pair of tits’. That’s what it took for The Sun newspaper to overtake The Mirror – and to the change the face of the media indelibly.


It’s a story as sensational as any tabloid headline, and it makes for titillating, chilling theatre in James Graham’s Ink.


Having exposed party politics in This House (National Theatre 2012; Garrick Theatre 2016) and state surveillance in Privacy (Donmar Warehouse 2014), the playwright turns his attention to Fleet Street in the late 60s.


Over three hours, the rule of the red top is traced back to its inception with documentary-style precision. Director Rupert Goold keeps you hooked with a pacy production featuring songs, physical theatre and headline montages.


Instead of the media mogul we know (and largely loathe), we see a young, rebellious Rupert Murdoch, played with squirmy urgency by Olivier-winner Bertie Carvel.


He buys an ailing daily newspaper and recruits wolfish editor Larry Lamb (Richard Coyle) to break the rules and beat The Mirror.





Across a towering, ink-stained stack of desks, in a thick fug of fag smoke and whiskey fumes, a pack of journalists chip away at tradition to reconnect with readers. What the people really want, these editors realise, is free stuff, sex and telly, communicated in an in-yer-face layout ‘that turned ugly into an artform’.


At first, it’s all puns, games and a permanent state of exclamation. There’s a gung-ho democracy to flouting formality and poking fun at privilege. Even an audience of liberal, Guardian-reading West End theatre-goers find themselves rooting for the plucky underdog.


But as the battle for readers intensifies, morals must decline for sales to increase. We know how it ends; we still see buxom evidence on page three of The Sun.


Watching the story unfold is like an uncomfortable and upsetting striptease, setting the precedent for the orgy of fake news and clickbait we call media in 2017.


You can blame the chairman for financing, or the editor for creating, but what about the people reading? Instead of attempting to point the finger, Ink revels in the ambiguity. In terms of the newsroom holy grail – who? what? where? when? why? – this shrewd snapshot of The Sun's rise is certainly A Good Story.


But it's the 'what next?', left unresolved, that really fascinates.

by Lucy Brooks

What Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review
Where Duke of York's Theatre, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4BG | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 09 Sep 17 – 06 Jan 18, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
Price £10 - £65
Website Click here to book now



Up to £78
Ink, Duke of York's Theatre review [STAR:5]
Booking closed
09 Sep 17 - 06 Jan 18

Ink, Duke of York's Theatre

See all tickets

Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London

Editor's Picks

Best new musicals, London 2019
Best new musicals, London 2020
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2023
Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
London Theatre: October highlights
London Theatre: October highlights

What members say

    Very interesting entry intro UK press - clever, entertaining

    Sandrine Roch

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Coco Ichibanya

    The first European branch of Japan's biggest curry house chain dishes out Japanese curries with adventurous toppings and plenty of options to customise your meal.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Henrietta Hotel and Restaurant

    Michelin-starred chef Ollie Dabbous has teamed up with luxury hospitality specialists The Experimental Group to open a modern British bistro within a boutique Covent Garden hotel.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Frenchie

    Restaurant and wine bar Frenchie has been credited with redesigning the Parisian way of eating. Its simple, generous yet precise dishes are heavily influenced by chef cum owner Gregory Marchand's classical training in Nantes.

    Read more...
    Book Map
9

Almeida 2017

Almeida Theatre

New Writing

James Graham

Hot Ticket

West End Transfer

West End

You might like

  • Oslo, London review. Photo by Brinkhoff/Mögenburg

    Oslo review ★★★★★

  • Suranne Jones: Frozen play, London 2018

    Frozen, Theatre Royal Haymarket review ★★★★★

  • Follies, National Theatre 2019

    Follies, National Theatre review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×