55 Days
Paperback, 96 pages ISBN: 9781848422872Publication Date:
18 Oct 2012
Size: 198mm x 129mm£12.99 £10.39You save £2.60 (20%)
Ebook, 96 pages ISBN: 9781780011851Publication Date:
15 Nov 2012
£12.99 £10.39You save £2.60 (20%)
First Staged:
Hampstead Theatre, London, 2012

55 Days

By Howard Brenton

Paperback £12.99£10.39

Ebook £12.99£10.39

A gripping historical drama that dramatises a crucial moment of English history.

December 1648. The Army has occupied London. Parliament votes not to put the imprisoned king on trial, so the Army moves against Westminster in the first and only military coup in English history. What follows over the next fifty-five days, as Cromwell seeks to compromise with a king who will do no such thing, is nothing less than the forging of a new nation, an entirely new world.

Howard Brenton’s play depicts the dangerous and dramatic days when, in a country exhausted by Civil War, a few great men attempt to think the unthinkable: to create a country without a king.

55 Days was first performed at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2012, in a production directed by Howard Davies.

Blog Entry: Howard Brenton on the context to 55 Days: Recently I met a Frenchman in London and we fell to talking about the high drama of the climax of the French Revolution: the struggle between Danton and Robespierre.  ‘In this country you don’t remember you also had a revolution,’ he said, adding, rather waspishly, ‘and you don’t realise you still live with the consequences’... Read on >>

Press Quotes

'The beauty of Brenton's play is that, as with so many of Brecht's, there is a conflict between theory and action... the real pleasure lies in seeing a pivotal moment in English history presented with such fervent dramatic power'

Guardian

'Fascinating'

The Times

'Intellectually intricate and emotionally stirring'

Independent

'A forgotten era of revolutionary British history is fascinatingly unlocked... electrifying'

Whatsonstage.com

'[A] confident and idea-packed piece... It could have been a dour history lesson. Instead it engages with the present, raising some pungent questions about the kind of democracy we have in Britain today'

Evening Standard
Paperback,96 pages ISBN: 9781848422872Publication Date:
18 Oct 2012
Size: 198mm x 129mm£12.99 £10.39You save £2.60 (20%)
Ebook,96 pages ISBN: 9781780011851Publication Date:
15 Nov 2012
£12.99 £10.39You save £2.60 (20%)

Also by Howard Brenton:

Dances of Death
Berlin Bertie
Eternal Love
Never So Good
Cancelling Socrates
Creditors
Lawrence After Arabia
Faust: Parts I & II
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Anne Boleyn
The Shadow Factory
The Blinding Light
Paul
Miss Julie
Drawing the Line
Jude
Miss Julie & Creditors
#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei
Doctor Scroggy's War

Go to author page...

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