NT : What's On : Productions : Never So Good
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
Cast credits:
Young Harry Crookshank : Ben Addis
Smithson : Jonathan Battersby
Anthony Eden : Anthony Calf
Young Harold Macmillan : Pip Carter
Nellie Macmillan : Anna Carteret
Dorothy Macmillan : Anna Chancellor
Selwyn Lloyd : Peter Forbes
Dwight D. Eisenhower : Clive Francis
Ronald Knox : Tim Frances
Bob Boothby : Robert Glenister
Neville Chamberlain : Terrence Hardiman
Ensemble : Sarah Head
Harold Macmillan : Jeremy Irons
Ensemble : Sioned Jones
Ensemble : Anne Kavanagh
Sgt. Robinson : Nicholas Lumley
Winston Churchill : Ian McNeice
Ensemble : Charlotte Melia
Ensemble : Roger Ringrose
Ensemble : Janet Spencer-Turner
Older Harry Crookshank : Terence Wilton
Ensemble : Claire Winsper
Ensemble : Rupert Young
Production credits:
Director: Howard Davies
Designer: Vicki Mortimer
Lighting Designer: Mark Henderson
Music: Dominic Muldowney
Choreography: Lynne Page
Sound Designer: Paul Arditti
photo (Jeremy Irons) by Catherine Ashmore
Never So Good finished on: 14 August 2008
