The National Theatre really did save lockdown and made us appreciate our phenomenal creative industries, but they may also have inadvertently pointed the way for the future as surely as National Theatre Live did in 2009.
Parliamentary power plays: Considering This House & other recent political dramas (not just by James Graham!)
When it was first performed in 2012 James Graham’s This House was an affectionate satire, using its 1970s setting to examine the still young Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government formed in 2010.
‘It is immediately clear how prescient it was’: THIS HOUSE – National Theatre (Online review)
The chaos of national politics in the mid-1970s seemed light years away in 2014, but how arrogant that assumption seems now.
‘Power is shown to be almost totally male-dominated’: THIS HOUSE – National Theatre (Online review)
The plotline of James Graham play covers several years during a period when majorities were slim and politics was a brutal business.
NEWS: National Theatre at Home screens Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus & A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson
The National Theatre has announced its third tranche of archive shows that will be streamed every Thursday at 7pm BST via its YouTube channel as part of lockdown initiative National Theatre at Home.
10 wish-list productions for future National Theatre At Home screenings
Following on from the instant success of National Theatre At Home streaming event, it’s got me thinking about all the other wonderful NT Live screenings that I’d love to come to the small screen as part of this series. I have narrowed it down to my top 10.
‘Totally contemporary & relevant’: THIS HOUSE – Touring ★★★★★
This House performs the miraculous feat of making a play about events which occurred over 40 years ago feel totally contemporary and relevant.
‘A living, breathing evocation of Parliamentary life’: THIS HOUSE – Touring
Although This House was written in 2012, the cyclical nature of politics means that the play is just as relevant now, with a Government attempting a major democratic change on a tiny majority, having to make unholy alliances just to get things done.
2017 Regional theatre recap
Much of my ‘touring’ has been concentrated in Bristol and Chichester; there are a few other UK venues to add to the list, as well as some from my week in New York, of course.
#NTNews: Beyond the South Bank, National co-produces Young Vic, tours extensively
National Theatre artistic director Rufus Norris announced the flagship institution’s 2018 plans at a press conference held today. Here are the announcements today that reach beyond the confines of the NT’s South Bank home.
INK – Almeida Theatre
Graham tells the eye-opening story of how Murdoch bought the ailing Sun newspaper and turned it into Britain’s most popular tabloid by focusing on the tycoon’s relationship with Larry Lamb, the paper’s new editor, and the rivalry between Lamb and his former boss, the Mirror editor Hugh Cudlipp.
This House & politics today: a very personal despair
Here I was watching the style of archaic, combative, misogynistic, blinkered, self-serving power politics which have helped to bring this country and the USA to a terrifying position of ungovernability which we are living through today.
LOVE – National Theatre
New devised piece about poverty and temporary accommodation is extremely powerful, but also deeply flawed.
THIS HOUSE – West End
This House has taken on a life of its own since its first appearance at the National Theatre in 2012 in the Cottesloe Theatre. Transferred to the Olivier, then revived this year at Chichester, it now sits grandly in the West End, complete with on-stage seating, rock band, glowered over by the face of Big Ben.
THIS HOUSE – West End
“One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don’t go into government.” Those are the words of Donald Trump and, frankly, there will be a lot of people agreeing with him especially after his recent victory in the US. It hasn’t always been this way, though.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: This House at the Garrick Theatre
Last seen in London at the National Theatre four years ago, James Graham’s play is brought to life once again, directed by Jeremy Herrin. But what have critics made of this long awaited West End premiere? The Guardian: ***** “the whole ensemble […]
THIS HOUSE – West End
The Parliamentary chaos of the 1970’s – hung parliaments, fragile alliances and lost divisions which predated the dawn of Mrs Thatcher – make for a tale hard to believe now. Even with 2016 Labour in chaos again and rebel-ridden Tories in precarious authority.
What are the Top 15 hottest tickets on the site right NOW?
we’re looking backwards and forwards for our final list today. These are our current Top 15 Ticket Recommendations – broken down into five musicals, five plays and five ‘star attractions’ (in other words, there are famous faces in the cast) – based on both best-sellers over the past month as well as our predictions on the hottest of upcoming openings…
THIS HOUSE – Chichester & West End
Political turmoil. It’s nothing new. And we are certainly reminded of that here! Set during the troubled Labour Government of the mid to late seventies, This House plays out, for the most part, in the Whips offices, the difference between the two like that of a Gentleman’s club to a working mans pub.
NEWS: Full cast announced for This House’s West End transfer
Casting has been announced for the West End transfer of James Graham’s critically acclaimed political drama This House, which opens at the West End’s Garrick Theatre on 30 November 2016, following previews from 19 November.
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