Never So Good

a new play by Howard Brenton

Set against a back-drop of fading Empire, war, the Suez crisis, vintage champagne, adultery and vicious Tory politics at the Ritz, Howard Brenton’s Never So Good paints the portrait of a brilliant, witty but complex man, at times comically and, in the end, tragically out of kilter with his times.

None of us knew what we were doing, of course. At the beginning of the Great War the world was a ripening peach, and we were eating it. And looking back how lovely we were, and so earnest, and innocent.

Harold Macmillan, the Eton-educated idealist who rushed, with Homer’s Iliad under his arm, to do his duty in the Grenadier Guards, is tormented by the harsh experiences of war and an unhappy marriage. His career in the 30s is blocked by his loyalty to Winston Churchill and he nearly loses his life in the Second World War. When at last he becomes Prime Minister he is brought down by he Profumo scandal.

My life. My life. Tarnished silver, perhaps, but solid. British. With a genuine hallmark: 'Democratic politician.’

From 17 March
World Premiere

photo (Jeremy Irons) by Catherine Ashmore