Review: Assassins, Union Theatre

Written for Time Out

Stephen Sondheim's firebrand musical might lose the irony behind its Broadway tipsiness when scaled down but, in Michael Strassen's distilled staging, it gains all the potency of moonshine. The collective of would-be President killers stands steadfast before us like a picket line. We don't just see the imagery of insurgency, we bear its brunt. To hear them blasting Another National Anthem is like finding an anti-war rally in your living room.

In the main, Strassen disregards historical likeness, preferring instead to savour the flavour of Sondheim's caricatures. The result is a cracking ensemble, miscellaneous as a toybox, and a string of playful individual performances, from John Barr's waddling fruitcake of a Guiteau to Leigh McDonald's squawking Sara Jane Moore.

There is a tendency for more flippant characters to overwhelm those with real political motivations. But this doesn't detract from performances like that of Nick Holder - best of all - as a raspy Samuel Byck, who plotted to fly a 747 into Nixon's White House. Plump as a Thanksgiving turkey and greasy as a McNugget, his perfectly-paced tape-recorded rant to Lenny Bernstein conveys a furious cynicism born of long-term, deep-seated injustice.

More could be made of the CIA chorus, but on a purgatorial brick-walled bare stage this Assassins scars like an exit-wound.