‘A moment to create the country they dreamed of’: Labour’s 1945 landslide becomes a play for today

‘A moment to create the country they dreamed of’: Labour’s 1945 landslide becomes a play for today

The Promise, a drama about the postwar government and the creation of the NHS, provides parallels with a new era of Labour victory

When Rishi Sunak announced a general election for 4 July, I whooped with joy. My play about the Labour government of 1945 had already been announced as part of Justin Audibert’s first season at Chichester Festival theatre. Now, for the first time in my life, it looked as if I had nailed the zeitgeist. When Keir Starmer and Labour won by a landslide, it felt extraordinary.

The truth was I’d spent years researching, writing and rewriting The Promise, a theatrical West Wing that puts the audience into the heart of the government that defined the Britain we live in today. The play had previously been programmed but cancelled by the pandemic. My zeitgeist was more like a broken clock.

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