Graham - James Graham Plays 2

James GrahamPlays: 2This House: It recreates, with startling vividness, the madness of life in the Westminster village during five action-filled years... Above all, the play unlocks a whole era. GuardianThe Angry Brigade: Graham is a funny writer on serious topics, and the script has his usual mix of ambition and levity. Theres a thriller-ish hunt for the criminals in the first half, while the second gallops through direct action, pop-culture parodies, political theory and messy relationships. Small personal moments manage to be both bathetic and heart-wrenching. not only catches an entertaining sense of the here and now... but more poignantly evokes the tide of history that turns us all, if we act on our prerogative, into bit-players in an epic drama. Daily TelegraphMonster Raving Loony: James Grahams plays mine political history in order to comment on the current state of the nation... [But] instead of straight biography, we get a bonkers essay in nostalgia... [But] instead of straight biography, we get a bonkers essay in nostalgia...

This is an intriguing look at the mechanisms of democracy... Its packed with smart ideas about the theatricality of politics and makes an attractive case for Sutchs enduring significance. Evening StandardJames Graham won the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play 2007 for Edens Empire. His previous plays include Alberts Boy (recipient of a Pearson Playwriting Bursary), Little Madam (Finborough), Tory Boyz (Soho Theatre), A History of Falling Things (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), The Man (Finborough), The Whisky Taster (Bush), Sons of York (Finborough), Bassett (National Theatre Connections), This House (National Theatre), which won Best Play at the Evening Standard Awards, The Angry Brigade (Paines Plough/Theatre Royal Plymouth), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) and Monster Raving Loony (Theatre Royal Plymouth/Soho Theatre). Other work includes Finding Neverland a musical with music and lyrics by Gary Barlow, Coalition for Channel 4 and the screenplay for the film x + y. ContentsBy the same author Alberts Boy The Angry Brigade Bassett (in National Theatre Connections 2011) Edens Empire A History of Falling Things This House The Man Tory Boyz The Whisky Taster Graham Plays: 1 (A History of Falling Things, Tory Boyz, The Man, The Whisky Taster, Sons of York)

2005	Alberts Boy (Finborough Theatre, London: recipient of a Pearson Playwriting Bursary)
2006	Edens Empire (Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play)
2007	Little Madam (Finborough Theatre, London)
2008	Tory Boyz (Soho Theatre)
Sons of York (Finborough Theatre, London)
2009	A History of Falling Things (Clwyd Theatr Cymrum, Wales)
2010	The Whisky Taster (Bush Theatre, London)
The Man (Finborough Theatre, London)
Huck (Chipping Norton Theatre and national tour)
Relish (National Youth Theatre)
2011	The Tour Guide (Edinburgh Fringe Festival)
Bassett (National Theatre Connections)
2012	This House (Cottesloe, National Theatre, London: Evening Standard Award for Best Play)
2014	The Angry Brigade (Theatre Royal Plymouth/ Paines Plough)
2015	The Vote created with Josie Rourke (Donmar Warehouse)
2016	Monster Raving Loony (Theatre Royal Plymouth/ Soho Theatre)

Prior to writing This House for the National Theatre in 2012, Id spent five revelatory years at the little Finborough in Earls Court, London, writing overly large and populated plays for that tiny room above a pub.

There was a play about the 1950s Suez Canal Crisis, one set during the 1970s Winter of Discontent, one about a 12-year-old Margaret Thatcher going on an adventure with imaginary friends. As a twenty-something wannabe writer Im sure I didnt deliberately set out to write historical plays, believing probably thats what grown-up playwrights did, once youd earned your stripes. It just so happened that the researching of one event would normally throw up another story I thought was cool. Cool to me, anyway. And that would become the next idea. This was the roll-up-your-sleeves world of fringe theatre where the bigger the play you wrote, the more work you had to do to raise money yourself, source props and costumes, build and paint the sets, and sell tickets.

And it was during the research for the Thatcher show, Little Madam, that I first heard a story that moved, surprised and horrified me. #spoileralert if you dont want the intricacies of 1970s parliament unveiled here then maybe read the play first. How did Margaret Thatcher get into power in 1979 and change the course of our national history? The election, yes, but why was the election called? A Vote of No Confidence in James Callaghans Labour administration. But whats that? (This is me skipping from book to book, by the way, slightly before the days when youd have easy access to the internet at home and Wikipedia was properly a thing. Imagine?) A Vote of No Confidence is Parliaments way of forcing a government out of office if over half of the House want you gone. The opposition called one in March 1979, and Labour lost.

They had to go to the polls in forced and unfavourable circumstances, and 18 years of Conservative power ensued. I knew most of that. I didnt know the Commons vote that changed history was won by only one. One single MPs vote, out of over six hundred cast. Surely it wasnt possible, I thought, for there to be a story surrounding where that one missing vote came from...? Doctor Alfred Broughton, the Member for Batley and Morley, and his absence from Parliament due to illness that one Labour vote the government needed to survive first inspired a radio play; How You Feeling, Alf? (I know, a very whimsical radio-drama-like title). But the more I learned about the lead up to that incredible night of No Confidence, often dubbed one of the most dramatic nights in the House of Commons history by those who chart such things, the more I couldnt believe what I found.

A hung parliament where chaos ensued, actual blood was split, and an ancient system came under its greatest strain; the closest it has ever come to collapse. When the first hung parliament since that one arrived in May 2010, and the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition became a new and bizarre reality, it gave me the impetus to knock on the door of the National Theatre and just see. I had imagined in the weeks that followed the election there might be a line of national treasures lining up outside Nicholas Hytners office with way more experience than me, pitching their own response to events, and I consequently felt not a little presumptuous doing so. I was underestimating the openness, kindness, patience and thirst for a risk by Nick, the literary manager Sebastian Born, and his associate Ben Power in being willing to give me a shot. The problem was it started off being impossible to research this play. I knew I wanted it to be set in the offices of the whips.