John Major’s rise from obscure whip to PM part of new National Theatre season

Play is one of eight world premieres in programme with global conflict and political upheaval at its heart

A new play about John Major’s rise to power, written by James Graham, will premiere at the National Theatre in London next year, as part of a season that puts political upheaval and global conflict at the heart of its programme.

Major reunites Graham with Jeremy Herrin, the director behind the acclaimed parliamentary drama This House. It will chart Major’s emergence from relatively obscure whip to prime minister, taking over from Margaret Thatcher at a pivotal moment in Britain’s relationship with Europe.

The National Theatre said the play would explore what leadership means at times of political change, with Graham returning to the recent political history that has become a recurring subject of his work.

It is one of eight world premieres announced by the theatre for next year, with a programme that its director, Indhu Rubasingham, said would examine “the perspectives, cultures and conflicts that continue to shape our world”.

Also on the programme is The Great Indaba, written by Moira Buffini and directed by Rubasingham, which dramatises an extraordinary 1997 meeting in South Africa involving Nelson Mandela’s new national unity government and political rivals from Northern Ireland, as the Good Friday agreement negotiations approached a breakthrough.

Another new play, Samira, by Carmen Nasr, is set during the Arab Spring and will be directed by Emily Burns. The Adeyemis – A Family Saga, a new political family drama by the British Nigerian writer Oladipo Agboluaje, will have its world premiere in the Dorfman theatre, directed by Lucian Msamati and starring Uzo Aduba.

Among the season’s other new work is Mr Loverman, Natasha Gordon’s stage adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo’s acclaimed novel about a married Caribbean man confronting his sexuality. Gary Beadle, Jo Martin and Danny Sapani are among the initial cast, with Paulette Randall directing.

There is also a new British musical, Glorious Madness, featuring songs by Joan Armatrading, with a book by Iman Qureshi and directed by Phyllida Lloyd.

The multi-award-winning theatre company Punchdrunk open a new immersive production called Ghostlight, conceived and directed by founder and artistic director Felix Barrett and curated by writer Lucy Kirkwood.

The programme is not without established works, but the balance is notable. Rather than a season dominated by Shakespeare and the traditional theatrical canon, the National has announced a series of modern classics and 20th-century works: West Side Story, co-directed by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell; Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Emma Corrin and Harriet Walter; David Hare’s Plenty, directed by former National Theatre director Richard Eyre and starring Emilia Clarke; and Death of a Salesman, starring Paul Mescal and Tracy Letts.

Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will also return to the stage, with Mescal leading a repertory production alongside Death of a Salesman.

Notably, however, there is no Shakespeare production among the National’s three main stages in the new season. Hamlet will instead be among new titles added to the National Theatre Collection, the organisation’s streaming and education service.

The National says the 2027 programme will include 18 productions, eight of them world premieres, alongside touring productions and work reaching audiences through cinema, streaming and schools.

Rubasingham said the season was united by “themes of resilience and hope” and was intended to reflect “the international spirit at the heart of our National Theatre”.

Kate Varah, the theatre’s executive and co-chief executive, said the programme represented an investment in “original storytelling” and in “bold artistic voices”, at a time when theatre was increasingly reaching audiences beyond its South Bank stages.