We Need to Speak Tony

Five improvisers are asked to ‘channel’ the psyche of Tony Blair. George Barber asks questions, and also feeds the improvisers anecdotes from various sources about Tony Blair’s life and experience as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The work’s unifying themes are: Tony Blair landing in the Iraqi desert at night; meeting George Bush, and the regrets of his key decisions.

Today, Blair makes a fortune lecturing, negotiating, promoting business interests, and also brokering arms deals. The Blair family also own large amounts of property in the U.K. and are big landlords. But what does Tony feel at night? What does he say to himself? What would he say to the mother of a dead soldier? Having made possibly the greatest foreign policy mistake of the 21st Century, unfortunately now virtually nobody supports or likes him in the UK. What does it feel like to be loathed – when once every world leader wanted to be photographed with you?

In this piece, the improvisers delve into his psyche and reveal his true feelings, motivations and guilt. One final image: Tony Blair would be loved and regaled like Ghandi or Mandela now if today’s Iraq were a successful democracy. This is probably what Blair gambled on in his attempt to garner historical standing. True, he has achieved that, but not as wished for.