When Winston Went to War with the Wireless

Last updated
When Winston Went to War with the Wireless
Written by Jack Thorne
Date premiered13 June 2023
Place premiered Donmar Warehouse
London
Original languageEnglish
Setting1926, London

When Winston Went to War with the Wireless is a play by Jack Thorne about the BBC during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike.

Contents

Production history

The play made its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London on 13 June 2023, following previews from 2 June, running until 29 July, directed by Katy Rudd. [1] [2]

Cast and characters

CharacterLondon (2023)
Isabel SheildsKitty Archer
John Reith Stephen Campbell Moore
Archbishop of Canterbury/J.C.C. Davidson Ravin J Ganatra
Stanley Baldwin Haydn Gwynne
Muriel ReithMariam Haque
Ernest Bevin Kevin McMonagle
Charlie Bowser/Engineer Luke Newberry
Musician/Speaker of the houseSeb Philpott
Arthur Pugh/MusicianElliott Rennie
Clemmie Churchill/Amelia Johnson Laura Rogers
Peter Eckersley Shubham Saraf
Winston Churchill Adrian Scarborough

Reception

The Guardian's Arifa Akbar gave the play three stars out of five, observing that "the story comes in fast, evocative scenes with dialogue delivering lots of information, entertainingly, but not with enough probing" and praised Rudd's direction while stating that "ultimately, we are not sure what the play is saying." [1]

Writing for Time Out , Andrzej Lukowski also awarded the play three stars of five, claiming that it "never quite manages to live up to its intriguing concept" and calling it "an entertaining but flawed exercise in cakeism." [3]

Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage.com gave the play four stars out of five, describing it as a "fleet and fluid production" and highlighting the performances of Campbell-Moore, Scarborough and Archer. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clementine Churchill</span> Wife of Winston Churchill and life peer (1885–1977)

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While she was legally the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier, her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility make her paternal parentage uncertain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mackenzie Crook</span> British actor

Mackenzie Crook is an English actor, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in The Office, Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Orell in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and the title role of Worzel Gummidge. He is also the creator and star of BBC Four's Detectorists (2014–2022), for which he won two BAFTA awards. He also plays major roles in TV series Britannia, as the opposite leading druids Veran and Harka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donmar Warehouse</span> Theatre in Covent Garden, London, England

The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977.

<i>After Miss Julie</i>

After Miss Julie is a 1995 play by Patrick Marber which relocates August Strindberg's naturalist tragedy, Miss Julie (1888), to an English country house in July 1945. The re-imagining of the events of Strindberg's original are transposed to the night of the British Labour Party's "landslide" election victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haydn Gwynne</span> British actress (1957–2023)

Haydn Gwynne was an English actress. She was nominated for the 1992 BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance for the comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1991), and won the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot the Musical. She was also a five-time Olivier Award nominee, winning her first posthumously in 2024. Her other television roles included Peak Practice (1999–2000), Merseybeat (2001–2002), and playing Camilla in The Windsors from 2016 until her death in 2023.

Far Away is a 2000 play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. It has four characters, Harper, Young Joan, Joan, and Todd, and is based on the premise of a world in which everything in nature is at war. It is published by Nick Hern Books. While some critics have expressed reservations about the play's ending, many regard Far Away as one of Churchill's finest plays.

Laura Rogers is a British actress from Carmarthen, Wales.

Talawa Theatre Company is a Black British theatre company founded in 1986.

Cush Jumbo is a British actress and writer. She is best known for her leading role as attorney Lucca Quinn in the CBS drama series The Good Wife (2015–2016) and the Paramount Plus spin-off series The Good Fight (2017–2021) and most recently June Lenker in the Apple series Criminal Record) (2024).

Alex Waldmann is an English actor from London. He is married to director Amelia Sears.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Pugh</span> British trade unionist

Sir Arthur Pugh CBE was a British trade unionist.

Lisa Ann Diveney is a British actress, best known for playing Beth in the Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass. She has also appeared in an episode of BBC drama Call the Midwife.

Jade Anouka is an English actress. She is known for her various stage roles and for her appearances in His Dark Materials on BBC One and the ITV dramas Trauma and Cleaning Up.

<i>Whats New Pussycat?</i> (musical) 2021 jukebox musical

What's New Pussycat? is a jukebox musical with the songs of Welsh singer Sir Tom Jones and a book by Joe DiPietro. It is based on Henry Fielding's 1749 novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling with the setting updated to the 1960s London.

Small Island is a 2019 play by Helen Edmundson based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Andrea Levy. It tells the deeply connected stories of three people against the backdrop of the complex history of the United Kingdom and Jamaica. It premiered at the National Theatre in 2019 to critical acclaim.

Beat the Devil is a 2020 monologue play by the British playwright David Hare. It is based on Hare's experience of catching COVID-19. The first production was at the Bridge Theatre in London, directed in Nicholas Hytner and starring Ralph Fiennes performing the monologue.

The Collaboration is a dramatic stage play written by New Zealand playwright Anthony McCarten. The play originated in the West End at The Young Vic in London. The original production starred Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol and Jeremy Pope as Jean-Michel Basquiat. The story, set in New York in 1984, centers around the collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat and their new exhibition. The production transferred on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in a co-production with the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Young Vic Theatre, starting on November 29, 2022, and ending in February 2023.

The 47th is a 2022 play in blank verse by Mike Bartlett. It was premiered at the Old Vic Theatre, London in March 2022 and tells of an imagined future history focusing on who will become the 47th president of the United States, following Joe Biden, which ends up being Kamala Harris.

<i>Dear England</i> Play by James Graham (2023)

Dear England is a play about England football manager Gareth Southgate, the pressures of elite sport, and the role of the national men's football team in the national psyche. The play explores how Southgate helped to change notions of masculinity on the England team. Written by James Graham, it opened in June 2023 at the National Theatre in London starring Joseph Fiennes and directed by Rupert Goold. The title of the play comes from the open letter Southgate wrote to England fans in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ola Ince is a British theatre director. She is noted for her Shakespeare productions. Her work often includes themes of power and race.

References

  1. 1 2 Akbar, Arifa (14 June 2023). "When Winston Went to War With the Wireless review – radio is the star of BBC crisis drama". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  2. Curtis, Nick (14 June 2023). "When Winston Went to War With the Wireless at the Donmar Warehouse". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  3. Lukowski, Andrzej (16 June 2023). "When Winston went to War with the Wireless". Time Out. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  4. Crompton, Sarah (14 June 2023). "When Winston Went to War with the Wireless – review". WhatsOnStage.com. Retrieved 1 August 2023.