The Promise review – high drama of Labour landslide collapses into argufying

Office politics … Richard Harrington as Nye Bevan and Reece Dinsdale as Herbert Morrison in The Promise at the Minerva theatre. Photograph: Helen Murray

The economy is in the doldrums and people are tired of being fed lies and propaganda by government. Then, a general election brings a landslide victory for the Labour party on the promise of wholesale change.

This scenario is not, as it may sound, about the here and now but a slice of British political history from 1945. Paul Unwin’s play begins as radical leftie, Ellen Wilkinson (Clare Burt, full of angry passion) urges her party to tear away from Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition. Clement Attlee’s government is voted in and the drama takes us into his cabinet.