The Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne is proud to host the acclaimed play by Jonathan Maitland, Dead Sheep, which heads to the venue from Tuesday 8th until Saturday 12th November. With a subject matter which concerns the resignation of a Prime Minister and a government thrown into crisis by the looming spectre of Europe there are many parallels to be drawn with recent events!
The play stars Steve Nallon (Spitting Image) as Margaret Thatcher, Paul Bradley (EastEnders and Holby City) as Geoffrey Howe and Graham Seed (Nigel Pargetter in The Archers) as Eastbourne MP Ian Gow. After a record-breaking run at London’s Park Theatre, and huge critical and public acclaim, Jonathan Maitland’s debut play is directed by Ian Talbot OBE.
It is 1989 and a seemingly invincible Prime Minister has sacked her Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, thinking she had nothing to fear from him as his speaking skills had, famously, been compared to “being mauled by a dead sheep”. But inspired by his wife Elspeth – a formidable and witty feminist, whose relationship with Thatcher was notoriously frosty – Howe overcame his limitations to destroy Mrs Thatcher’s political career…and his own.
Using imagined dialogue to portray private scenes between the main protagonists, it recreates the events leading up to Howe’s famous 1990 speech, in which he criticised Thatcher for undermining policies on economic and monetary union in Europe, ultimately leading to her downfall and resignation.
Playwright Jonathan Maitland said, “When I wrote Dead Sheep in 2014 I knew it would be resonant. But it now feels uncanny. Then, as now, it was a story of a government split over Europe, agonising conflicts of loyalty, and a fatal miscalculation by a seemingly impregnable Prime Minister.”
Dead Sheep is at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne from Tuesday 8th to Saturday 12th November with nightly performances at 7.45pm and Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets, from £15.50, are available to book by calling 01323 412000 or online at www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk