Jonathan Maitland – författare

It was the dinner that changed history: the night in February 2016 when Boris Johnson decided to vote ‘leave’ and a nation’s future was sealed. Guests included the spirits of Prime Ministers past, including Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill and Tony Blair as well as fellow MP Michael Gove, the journalist Sarah Vine, Marina Wheeler and Evgeny Lebedev.

Fast forward to post-Brexit Britain. Johnson, no longer in power, roams the political wilderness. Unexpected events see him back in the spotlight and with a chance to “make Britain great again”. This hilarious play addresses the big questions. What will Britain look like in decades to come? What do we want from our leaders? Are all political careers destined to end in failure? And is chlorinated chicken really bad for you?

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.