Many will know this isn’t your first play that you have written together and will have followed your work over the years, my first question has to be: when did you both first decide to start writing together?

We first met in the early 1990s at Southampton University. From time to time since then we worked on various writing projects together, including gagging up corporate entertainment scripts, as well as working on radio and TV sit-com pilots but nothing got off the ground. In 2000, in an exasperated response to the ‘hanging Chad’ presidential election and George W Bush’s election, we set up and edited the online satirical netzine The Brains Trust, which the Guardian dubbed “the British son of The Onion”. But Robert had always nursed a theory that there is always an audience for good political drama – see for example Whipping It Up, Feelgood, Absence of War and so on and he suggested that a collaboration on a piece tentatively entitled Opposition about how the Tory party – sometimes called the ‘natural party of government’ – deals with being a decade out of power. But the General Election result in 2010 obsoleted Opposition, as the Tories returned to government.

Work then began instead on a play called Coalition of which Robert wrote the last page and Tom prepared a scene-by-scene breakdown. The concept – an out-and-out comedy – was to show how the leader of the Liberal Democrats, by choosing to enter into a coalition with the Tories, had signed the death warrant for his party. The play went on to be a great success at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 and was then followed by further plays Making News, Kingmaker, Impossible, Brexit and now The Gang of Three.

What inspired you both to write The Gang of Three?

The idea was pitched to us by a leading producer, who suggested the relationships between Roy Jenkins, Tony Crosland and Denis Healey – three brilliant and larger-than-life politicians – could make a fascinating piece of theatre. Given that we had already written a play about the Lib Dems and the Tories (three plays about the Tories, in fact…) we thought it was time to explore the Labour party, especially now that Labour is in power once again. While the tone of this piece is less out-and-out comedy than of some of our previous work, there are lots of funny lines as well as real drama and pathos, based on these three fascinating titans of British politics.

Have you been involved with the latest production of The Gang of Three?

Oh yes, although we made a decision early on to bring on board a genius general manager, James Quaife of New Frame Productions. He’s done a great job, and we’ve assembled a really strong team of people, including our superb director Kirsty Patrick Ward, to collectively bring the words to life.

What future plans do you have for this play, if any?

Let’s see…


Do you have another plan either in the pipeline or under construction at the moment? If yes are there any spoilers available about it is going to be based upon?

Yes, we have at least three further plays we are currently working on. One is a pure farce about a group of friends who go on holiday together, while another is about the Metropolitan Police set in the 1970s. But the most advanced is a play called In The Print, which is about the 1986 Wapping print strike, about the titanic struggle between Rupert Murdoch and trade union leader Brenda Dean.


The Gang of Three runs at King’s Head Theatre – 30 April to 1 June 2025.

For more information and to book tickets please visit http://www.kingsheadtheatre.com

https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/6/by-robert-khan-tom-salinsky/the-gang-of-three