When she broke through the glass ceiling and became chancellor, Reeves found her office had its own latrine. Rosie Holt reveals why she turned the story into a play called Churchill\u2019s Urinal<\/p>\n
Britain is a conservative country, we are repeatedly told. So when Labour came into government, and Rachel Reeves became the UK\u2019s first ever female chancellor of the exchequer, there were barriers to making change. The most striking, reports the satirist Rosie Holt, was to be found in the toilet of Reeves\u2019 office in Westminster. \u201cThere was a urinal in No 11,\u201d says Holt. \u201cAnd Reeves told an interviewer, \u2018I\u2019m going to break glass ceilings and urinals.\u2019 She was setting up getting rid of this urinal as a symbolic win. I thought that was funny and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
But things did not go according to plan. \u201cShe couldn\u2019t get it removed, not only because the building was listed, but because the urinal was an object of historical significance. It had been pissed in by various chancellors \u2013 including Winston Churchill.\u201d For Holt \u2013 standup, online character comic but also a lapsed theatre-maker \u2013 this story was irresistible. On last year\u2019s fringe, she workshopped a new play making antic political farce out of Reeves\u2019 battle with a historic pissoir. <\/em>One year on, Churchill\u2019s Urinal \u2013 written by and starring Holt with contributions from her ex-partner, the comedian Stewart Lee \u2013 has its London premiere.<\/p>\n
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