Description
It is 1989 and a seemingly invincible Prime Minister has sacked Geoffrey Howe, her Foreign Secretary. She apparently had nothing to fear from him: his speaking skills had, famously, been compared to those of a dead sheep. But, a year later, inspired by his wife Elspeth – whose relationship with Thatcher was notoriously frosty – Howe overcame his limitations to destroy Mrs Thatcher with one of the great political speeches.
Dead Sheep is a drama tinged with tragedy and comedy. Its themes – loyalty, love, political morality and Britishness – are still uncannily relevant today.
About the writer
Jonathan Maitland was a broadcaster and journalist for 30 years before becoming a playwright. He reported for Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC TV news in the 90s before going on to present and produce factual and documentary TV shows for the BBC and ITV. He has written four plays including 2015’s Dead Sheep, which broke the box office record at London’s Park Theatre and subsequently toured nationally. The follow up An Audience with Jimmy Savile broke the records set by his debut and was called ‘the most talked about play of 2015’. The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson completed a sold out run at Park Theatre in 2018 and toured the UK. His radio play The Rem Co aired on Radio 4 in 2018. He lives in west London.
