INTERVIEW: With Will Barton, who plays our PM in new play "The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson" in Newcastle

From peroxiding his hair to learning new lines nightly, Vicky Edwards talks to actor Will Barton about playing one of the most polarising politicians of all time.

The new political comedy from journalist, broadcaster and playwright Jonathan Maitland, The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson sold out at London’s Park Theatre, making a tour almost inevitable. For Will, taking the play around the country doubles his pleasure.

“I absolutely love touring and a week in a city really gives you the chance to get to know a place. I love to get out and see all that there is to see. So long as I get good digs then for me touring is just great.”

One of the joys of touring for Will is returning to venues and towns that he has played previously.

“It is always lovely to return to a town or a theatre you have enjoyed before and so I am very much looking forward to taking The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson  to Newcastle.”  

He is just as enthusiastic about the play.

“It’s a great night out,” he promises. “Great fun and it doesn’t lecture. Interestingly, I had two friends come to see the show on the same night at Park Theatre. One had his People’s Vote badge on and had been on a march that day; the other was a big Nigel Farage fan. They both loved it. It is something for both Leavers and Remainers. But it is also a cautionary tale that reminds us to be careful what we wish for. We are not sure that Boris got where he has at the time he wanted to be there – I’m sure he would rather be PM when there was no Brexit – but that’s the way of politics.”

Would he describe the play as an antidote to Brexit?

“It is really good fun, a bit ‘out there’ and very funny, so yes, it certainly lightens up the whole sorry mess.”

Directed by Dugald Bruce-Lockheart (a long-standing member and Associate Director of Edward Hall’s Propeller), the premise is fascinating. It is February 2016. Boris Johnson has decided to vote ‘leave’

and, at a dinner party, he is joined by fellow MP Michael Gove, Gove’s wife the journalist Sarah Vine and, for Boris at least, the spirits of Prime Ministers past – Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill and Tony Blair. Fast forward to post-Brexit Britain, 2029. Boris, no longer in power (for reasons that may be fact and/or fiction at time of performance!), roams the political wilderness. But unexpected events see him back in the spotlight.

“I can’t say too much or it will be a spoiler, but it’s interesting to wonder what Britain might look like in ten years’ time and to guess at what Boris might be up to. Let’s just say that he has the chance to

‘make Britain great again’.”

It certainly sounds as if it will be as much fun to perform as it will be to watch, but I’m keen to find out if there’s any truth in the rumour that Will may have new lines to learn for every performance –

according to the press release ‘ the script will be updated – nightly, if necessary - to reflect events’.

Wowzer! Surely that comes under the heading of Above and Beyond the Call of Thespian Duty?

“It was a challenge when we did the play at the Park,” admits Will. “I was juggling learning new lines with looking after my daughter and actually doing the show, but it works really well and I’m more relaxed about it this time.”

Intrigued as to how an actor gets into the head of BOJO, I ask Will how he sets about ‘becoming Boris.’

“With all characters you have to find something that you like about them. There is almost always something that chimes with you, so with Boris I began with the fact that we both don’t always think before we speak. Neither of us is particularly politically correct and we are chaotic and untidy; quick-witted, but not intellectual. He doesn’t grasp detail particularly well and I don’t think I do.

“I work from the outside in. His eyes are very important to me. He tends to look up in in specific way and if I do that somehow that helps me to channel him. He also walks like an ungainly Mike Tyson, so

I watched a lot of footage of him walking. But the lines are there and so it’s just a case of ‘getting’

him and trying not to impose. I do seem to be able to tap into him for some reason,” he muses.

Some actors might baulk at playing such a provocative character – especially one that is not only still alive, but who is in such a prominent position of power – but Will has no such anxieties.

“He is a very contentious character; the loveable buffoon with a darker side who says what comes into his head half the time, but I was delighted to be asked to play him. I’m usually a character actor who doesn’t play the lead, so this really is a great opportunity.”

With an impressive array of credits in theatre, film and television, on TV Will has appeared in shows including A Confession, Vanity Fair, Holby City, EastEnders, New Tricks  and Doctors.  Fortuitously, providing the perfect warm-up, he also played Boris in the BBC drama documentary, Theresa v Boris.

“That was quite a sympathetic performance of Boris, I think,” he says, adding that during the London run of ‘ The Last Temptation’  Rachel Johnson, Boris’s sister, came to see the show incognito and couldn’t get over the likeness, finding it so odd how alike Will was to her brother.

“She was raving about it and thought it was absolutely hilarious, so I must have been doing something right!”

Surprisingly, perhaps, Will tells me that he won’t be donning a wig for the play.

“I dye my hair and it makes a big difference. I’m not sure why, but it does.”

And with the likelihood of having to learn new lines every night to keep pace with Boris’s real life shenanigans, I’d say he needs all the help he can get. After all, when you consider that Boris once said that his chances of being PM were ‘about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive,’ the potential for our blonde bombshell PM to become embroiled in some sort of scandal or disaster is more a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.

But Will is unconcerned.

“It keeps it interesting for me and for the audience and it really will be great fun.”

Slipping into character (quite brilliantly) as he bids me goodbye, I leave in the sure and certain knowledge that people should definitely vote with their bums and nab seats for this show a bit sharpish.

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Will Barton is playing Boris Johnson in The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson. Vicky Edwards gets up close and personal with the actor ‘in character’ (and needs a lie down in a darkened room immediately afterwards).

VE: What are your thoughts on a play all about you, Boris?

BOJO: Well, quite right! Absolutely flattered to be playing myself! Brilliant to be on stage setting the record straight. Hopefully with no ditches on the set. I don’t like ditches! But I survived the ditch line on 31 October. I got up and survived!

VE: The play is called The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson. What is your ultimate temptation?

BOJO: I can resist everything but temptation. I invented that line myself. Oscar Wilde said it? Pure coincidence! Actually, I think The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson is a good title to get people in.

And what I can say, Vicky, is that I want people to love me. I absolutely deserve that. People said that I couldn’t get the referendum through. I did! People said that I couldn’t get a deal from the EU and I did! People said that I couldn’t get Brexit done on October 31st and I… well, er – erm… Ah! But I didn’t say which October 31st, so I haven’t lied.

VE: How many children do you have?

BOJO: Children? I’ve lost count. How am I supposed to know?

VE: How do you think politicians should be engaging with the electorate?

BOJO: What we’ve got to do here is make promises, some of which we’ll keep. One of which is to have an Ann Summers shop on every street. Let’s make Britain great again!

VE: What do you think of your political opponents?

BOJO: Look, let’s face it; Jeremy is flaccid and I’m political Viagra. There is no way politically he could get it up. Look at the women we’ve dated. Mine are far superior to the ones he’s had dalliances with.

Mind you, I have to take my hat off to him for taking Diane Abbot on that motorbike trip to East Germany. Who would I do that trip with? Wait, I am trying to think of the hot ones. Oh yes; that Jo Swinson has got quite a rack on her. But she has an awful voice so I’m not sure about her being behind me map reading. But she is quite sexy.

VE: Your dad has been a huge success in reality TV shows. Would you appear in these sorts of show?

BOJO: When my political career does come to an end I am going to have my own chat show. It will rival Jonathan Ross’s. Everything is going to be bigger and better. It will be called BJ. I will ask everyone to BJ with me. Look, I just want to be loved and to be king of the world.

VE: The play is touring across the country. Do you like travelling around the UK?

BOJO: Love it! I love being in a new city every week. I love going night clubbing, but I’ll have to be incognito. I don’t want to get ‘milk shaked.’ I hope audiences in each town the play goes to come along to the theatre and see the much maligned – unfairly maligned – Boris. I’m not a snowflake! I am a man and I won’t apologise for that. This is Eton, Oxford, anti-establishment Boris. The real Boris!