Ink
Written by James Graham
Directed by Rupert Goold
Manhattan Theatre Club
June 21, 2019
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Ink is an explosion and of far more than just ink.  I have never found a play that winds up so hard and so fast.  The punch that it delivers at the end of Act 1 truly hit me viscerally and left me limping back to the lounge for the men’s room. It is one fast furious roller coaster.  I had thought that I was going to see one of those comparatively gentle, sentimental plays such as “The Front Page” that explores the backstory of what it takes to put out a daily newspaper in the American 40’s.  Well, this is London and this is nothing but brutal. 

Here in 1969, we have a fictionalized version of the true story of how Rupert Murdoch came to England from Australia, bought the Sun, and turned it into the the most popular tabloid in town – taking no prisoners as it devoured the other more “respectable” newspapers of the time.  The key to the success of the Sun was its focus on giving the working people “what they wanted – and give it to them just that way.”  The Sun begins to focus on sex, crime, sports, gossip, “free stuff” and legitimized TV, movies, and rock’n’roll.  But it was the inclusion of bare-chested women on the 3rd page of the Sun, running from 1970 to 2015 that truly put this newspaper as the front-runner.

This play looks great.  Desk up desk are desk are stacked to the top of the proscenium.  Actors climb over all these desks to feverishly knock out the next issue.  There is plenty of drinking, smoking and swearing.  It is a boiler cooker of a stage.  The acting was impeccable. Scenes with Murdoch (Bertie Carvel) and his new editor Larry Lamb (Jonny Lee Miller) sizzle off the stage.  I usually regret not having a cup of coffee before the play – but with this play coffee was being pour out every minute from the stage.  See this Ink!