{"id":611443,"date":"2026-09-10T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/611443\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T05:32:14","slug":"john-majors-rise-from-obscure-whip-to-pm-part-of-new-national-theatre-season-national-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/611443\/","title":{"rendered":"John Major\u2019s rise from obscure whip to PM part of new National Theatre season | National Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new play about John Major\u2019s rise to power, written by James Graham, will premiere at the National Theatre<\/a> in London next year, as part of a season that puts political upheaval and global conflict at the heart of its programme.<\/p>\n

Major reunites Graham with Jeremy Herrin, the director behind the acclaimed parliamentary drama This House. It will chart Major\u2019s emergence from relatively obscure whip to prime minister, taking over from Margaret Thatcher at a pivotal moment in Britain\u2019s relationship with Europe.<\/p>\n

The National Theatre<\/a> said the play would explore what leadership means at times of political change, with Graham returning to the recent political history that has become a recurring subject of his work.<\/p>\n

Uzo Aduba to star in The Adeyemis – a Family Saga Photograph: Robert Maxwell<\/p>\n

It is one of eight world premieres announced by the theatre for next year, with a programme that its director, Indhu Rubasingham, said would examine \u201cthe perspectives, cultures and conflicts that continue to shape our world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Also on the programme is The Great Indaba, written by Moira Buffini and directed by Rubasingham, which dramatises an extraordinary 1997 meeting in South Africa involving Nelson Mandela\u2019s new national unity government and political rivals from Northern Ireland, as the Good Friday agreement negotiations approached a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Another new play, Samira, by Carmen Nasr, is set during the Arab Spring and will be directed by Emily Burns. The Adeyemis \u2013 A Family Saga, a new political family drama by the British Nigerian writer Oladipo Agboluaje, will have its world premiere in the Dorfman theatre, directed by Lucian Msamati and starring Uzo Aduba.<\/p>\n

Among the season\u2019s other new work is Mr Loverman, Natasha Gordon\u2019s stage adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo\u2019s acclaimed novel about a married Caribbean man confronting his sexuality. Gary Beadle, Jo Martin and Danny Sapani are among the initial cast, with Paulette Randall directing.<\/p>\n

There is also a new British musical, Glorious Madness, featuring songs by Joan Armatrading, with a book by Iman Qureshi and directed by Phyllida Lloyd.<\/p>\n

Emilia Clarke will appear in Plenty. Photograph: Misha Shahzada<\/p>\n

The multi-award-winning theatre company Punchdrunk open a new immersive production called Ghostlight, conceived and directed by founder and artistic director Felix Barrett and curated by writer Lucy Kirkwood.<\/p>\n

The programme is not without established works, but the balance is notable. Rather than a season dominated by Shakespeare and the traditional theatrical canon, the National has announced a series of modern classics and 20th-century works: West Side Story, co-directed by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell; Tennessee Williams\u2019 Suddenly Last Summer, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Emma Corrin and Harriet Walter; David Hare\u2019s Plenty, directed by former National Theatre director Richard Eyre and starring Emilia Clarke; and Death of a Salesman, starring Paul Mescal and Tracy Letts.<\/p>\n

Tom Murphy\u2019s A Whistle in the Dark and Tom Stoppard\u2019s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will also return to the stage, with Mescal leading a repertory production alongside Death of a Salesman.<\/p>\n

Notably, however, there is no Shakespeare production among the National\u2019s three main stages in the new season. Hamlet will instead be among new titles added to the National Theatre Collection, the organisation\u2019s streaming and education service.<\/p>\n

The National\u2019s director Indhu Rubasingham and Kate Varah, the theatre\u2019s executive. Varah said the theatre had invested in \u2018bold artistic voices\u2019. Photograph: Adama Jalloh<\/p>\n

The National says the 2027 programme will include 18 productions, eight of them world premieres, alongside touring productions and work reaching audiences through cinema, streaming and schools.<\/p>\n

Rubasingham said the season was united by \u201cthemes of resilience and hope\u201d and was intended to reflect \u201cthe international spirit at the heart of our National Theatre\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kate Varah, the theatre\u2019s executive and co-chief executive, said the programme represented an investment in \u201coriginal storytelling\u201d and in \u201cbold artistic voices\u201d, at a time when theatre was increasingly reaching audiences beyond its South Bank stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new play about John Major\u2019s rise to power, written by James Graham, will premiere at the National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-611443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}