Robert Houston is a Labour backbencher seeking to defect to the Conservatives to keep his seat, when the expenses scandal hits the papers the day before his interview with Sir Norman Cavendish to complete the switch.

[4][5][6] What follows is a comedy of errors as Houston and his family try to cover their expenses claims including a massage chair,[7] a glittered toilet seat,[8] hanging baskets and an ornamental duck house.

[14][15] The production is directed by Terry Johnson[16] featuring set and costume design by Lez Brotherston, sound by John Leonard and lighting by Mark Henderson.

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph wrote that the show featured some "sublime comic moments" and that "Subtle it certainly ain’t, but at its ribald best The Duck House proves genuinely hilarious.

"[31] Ian Shuttleworth of The Financial Times felt that although the play was "topical" it took "passing shots at pretty much every other political “outrage” of recent years" and as such was "lazier even than a dedicated couch potato."