Ink (New Theatre) ★★★★

Written by James Graham. New Theatre. 29 May – 29 Jun, 2024.

Ink is, and isn’t, about Rupert Murdoch. It’s really about Larry Lamb, the man Murdoch chose to edit the UK newspaper The Sun and how he transformed it from an irrelevant rag, into a mass hit by appealing to the common man… for better or for worse. 

James Graham is one of the busiest writers in the UK with hits like Quiz (which became a great TV miniseries), Best of Enemies, This House, Dear England, plus TV work like The Crown, Brexit: The Uncivil War and Sherwood. 2017‘s Ink was one of his earliest West End hits. He’s one of those playwrights who knows when to let the dialogue roll and when to stop and make his point, which does primarily through the character of Hugh Cudlipp, the editor of the rival The Mirror. 

Cudlipp: “This is it. You realise that, this is one of those moments, people look back on, and say, ‘When was it, that it all fell away?’ (Pointing) This is it.” 

Graham shapes the narrative as a classic Underdog vs The Establishment and has the audience rooting for Murdoch (Adrian Adam), Lamb (Nick Curnow) and their team of upstarts. Not an easy thing to achieve. Murdoch himself is felt more as a presence than as a character. Lamb looks after the day-to-day operations of The Sun, coming up with ridiculous idea after ridiculous idea to drive readership and send gusts of fresh air into the stuffy world of Fleet Street. At first it’s all fun and scrappy bravado, but it doesn’t take long for things to turn sour.

I’d been wanting to see this new production at New Theatre since it opened, but life kept getting in the way. I saw the original production at London’s Almeida Theatre, which would eventually win Bertie Carvel an Olivier and a Tony Award for his portrayal of Murdoch. I was a little bit worried that an independent production in Sydney could never live up to that original, but boy was I wrong. Director Louise Fischer has taken an excellent script and worked wonders on a micro-budget. The beauty and curse of independent theatre is that you can’t hide behind the wizardry of the theatre – no fancy sets to distract the audience with, it lives or dies on the writing and the performances. And these performances are, frankly, stunning.

Adrian Adam’s Murdoch is brash and single-minded, with no time for ceremony. His pragmatism and drive are disturbingly admirable. Instead of playing Murdoch as a moustache twirling villain, which I’m sure is a temptation. Here he is a businessman chasing success. His faith and friendship with Lamb is almost heartwarming. 

But this is Nick Curnow’s show and he slips into Lamb’s skin so completely you forget you’re watching an actor in a role. A mix of empathy and charm, he turns frighteningly ferocious. You can watch Curnow’s Lamb lose his joy and his soul as the traumatic events of the second act overtake him. The moment of his final creation, the infamous topless Page Three girl, plays like a man eating his final meal before execution. It’s one of the best all-round performances I’ve seen so far this year.

It’s not just these two who so completely inhabit their roles as to almost become invisible. Emily Weare, William Baltyn, Daniel Tompson, Jack Elliot Mitchell and Chad Traupmann all create vivid characters to form the ensemble of Sun editors – each getting moments to really shine. 

In 2017 when Graham wrote the line, “Promote the base instincts of people all you like, fine, create an appetite, but I warn you. You’ll have to keep feeding it.” It stung hard. After the dual disasters of 2016 – Brexit and Trump’s election, both fueled by news organisations that lied to the public and stirred populist rhetoric. In 2024 it only takes a quick look at Twitter/X, or TikTok, or Youtube etc to see how base people can really be, especially when they can hide behind avatars. The demons people like Lamb and Murdoch unleashed are still destroying us.

With less than a week left in the run, book quickly. And if any of our mainstages are looking for something to add to their 2025 season, they could do a lot worse than grab this director and cast and restage Ink, giving it the budget to really elevate this already excellent production.