David Hare’s new play Gethsemane sparks guessing game

David Hare's latest play, the sombrely titled Gethsemane, opened last night at the National's Cottesloe Theatre (pictured from left are cast members Daniel Ryan, Tamsin Greg and Pip Carter). It is an undisguised attack on the morals of New Labour and, unsurprisingly, many of the reviewers focused on which real-life characters from the Blair era were represented on stage. The Times' theatre critic, Benedict Nightingale, who awarded the play three stars (out of five), wrote: "Where, I wonder, did David Hare find the raw material for his irritating but engrossing new play? What dodgy personage was the inspiration for the ultra-confident fundraiser and fixer who threatens to embarrass and imperil new Labour? Or for the Cabinet minister whose businessman husband is facing trial in a foreign court for his iffy deals?"

As reported here previously, the Paymaster General, Tessa Jowell, is said to have asked Hare to amend one of the characters, a dodgy businessman, whom some believe to be based on David Mills, her estranged husband. Mills stands trial this month for money-laundering; services that he is alleged to have provided the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

The Independent's critic, Alice Jones, who also gave the play three stars (out of five), had a similar take, beginning her review: "Half the fun in David Hare's new play comes from spotting the parallels – a Jowell jibe here, a [Oleg] Deripaska dig there."

However, Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph felt it was all a little passe. He wrote: "The problem with writing topical plays is that they can so quickly seem old hat. Had it been staged during Tony Blair's last days in Downing Street, when the cops were regularly calling round for a cosy chat, this drama about Labour Party funding and dodgy connections with the filthy rich would have seemed a very hot potato indeed."