John Major’s rise from obscure whip to PM part of new National Theatre season — SkimNews
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- National Theatre announced its 2027 programme of 18 productions, eight of them world premieres, with director Indhu Rubasingham framing the season around themes of "resilience and hope" and an "international spirit"
- James Graham reunites with director Jeremy Herrin — the pair behind This House — for a new play tracking John Major's path from whip to PM, succeeding Margaret Thatcher at what the theatre calls "a pivotal moment in Britain's relationship with Europe"
- The season's other premieres include Moira Buffini's The Great Indaba, dramatising a 1997 meeting between Nelson Mandela's government and Northern Ireland rivals; Carmen Nasr's Samira, set during the Arab Spring; and Oladipo Agboluaje's The Adeyemis, starring Uzo Aduba under Lucian Msamati's direction
- Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett conceives a new immersive production called Ghostlight, curated by writer Lucy Kirkwood, joining premieres like Natasha Gordon's stage adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo's Mr Loverman and a musical called Glorious Madness featuring songs by Joan Armatrading
- No Shakespeare appears across the National's three main stages in the new season — a notable break from tradition — with Hamlet instead added to the NT Collection streaming and education service
- Modern classics and 20th-century works fill out the programme: West Side Story co-directed by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell, Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer with Emma Corrin and Harriet Walter, David Hare's Plenty starring Emilia Clarke, and Death of a Salesman with Paul Mescal and Tracy Letts
Why it matters: The season marks a deliberate programming pivot by Rubasingham toward world premieres and 20th-century work over the traditional Shakespeare-led canon — the absence of the Bard across the National's three main stages is the clearest signal — while the John Major play continues Graham's track record of dramatising recent political history.
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