The Ayes Have It! The Ayes Have It! – Leicester Square Theatre, London

Director: Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh

If you remember the days of endless squabbling and uncertainty over Brexit fondly you’d be the only one. In a period dominated by divisive politics and mad passion on all sides, a satisfying conclusion seems to have never been reached for anyone.

The Ayes Have It! The Ayes Have It! is a resurrection of precisely this spirit, with the format put in place by director and former MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh intended to renew discourse on this unsettled topic through a formal debate. Effort is made to furnish the stage like a mini-House of Commons, complete with former Speaker of The House John Bercow himself, with the proposition being: Brexit has been a disaster and should be reversed.

And all the stars are here, dutifully filling out the benches. Ex-Brexit Minister himself David Davis opposing, of course. along with Baroness Claire Fox and Talk TV’s Mike Graham, while opposite them are figures like Gina Miller, Alex Salmond and stalwart broadcaster Andrew Marr. On stage all play miniatures of their roles in that bygone era; Davis championing sovereignty while dismissing all economics as rubbish, Miller objecting to her opponents’ half-truths with rather confusing points of her own, and Marr delivering a moderate and intelligent oration that fails to actually support his own side.

Is this reinvigorated political debate or simply a masochistic time capsule? Bercow in particular comes across as a caricature, yelling out ‘Order, Order!’ with the kind of relish more typically reserved for sitcom catchphrases.

The night delivers no revelations. A red-haired woman sitting near the front wondered aloud if seven crates would have achieved the same effect. And though there are regular peaks of emotion from the audience, wherein they frequently drown out the speakers with heckles and jeers while invariably calling them all liars, an air of futility lingers. Aware of this, Ahmed-Sheikh has taken two strong directorial decisions to round out proceedings with a feel-good conclusion.

First, a young person from each side is allowed to make the final remarks (on the night these were Cora and Dominic from Chestnut Grove Academy), and thanks to their apathy toward any political point-scoring both make succinct statements. Then to end the night Bercow leads the crowd in self-congratulatory applause, offering platitudes about how wonderful everyone is for attending and how important arguing like this is for the health of British democracy. The first of these succeeds, the second threatens to be undercut by what we’ve just witnessed.

This one step forward, one step back is characteristic of the show overall. Ultimately there’s promise here and it engages in the moment, but a tighter structure, as well as further development, is needed to deliver the healthy political debate it so clearly wants to offer.

Reviewed on 21 November 2023