Britain is a conservative country, we are repeatedly told. So when Labour came into government, and Rachel Reeves became the UK’s first ever female chancellor of the exchequer, there were barriers to making change. The most striking, reports the satirist Rosie Holt, was to be found in the toilet of Reeves’ office in Westminster. “There was a urinal in No 11,” says Holt. “And Reeves told an interviewer, ‘I’m going to break glass ceilings and urinals.’ She was setting up getting rid of this urinal as a symbolic win. I thought that was funny and interesting.”
But things did not go according to plan. “She couldn’t get it removed, not only because the building was listed, but because the urinal was an object of historical significance. It had been pissed in by various chancellors – including Winston Churchill.” For Holt – standup, online character comic but also a lapsed theatre-maker – this story was irresistible. On last year’s fringe, she workshopped a new play making antic political farce out of Reeves’ battle with a historic pissoir. One year on, Churchill’s Urinal – written by and starring Holt with contributions from her ex-partner, the comedian Stewart Lee – has its London premiere.
