The Promise

Details

To promise nearly fifty million people truly universal health care - 'cradle to the grave' - is crackers. 1945. In a country exhausted and crippled by debt after six years of war, time is up for Winston Churchill's Tories. With a rallying cry for change, Labour wins an astonishing, landslide election victory. Clement Attlee may be an unlikely prime minister and his cabinet of competing heavyweights - from the loyal Ernest Bevin to scheming Herbert Morrison - argue furiously about how to realise their manifesto: to make a welfare state, build millions of homes, reorganise dilapidated schools, and most dramatically, create a National Health Service that is free at the point of need. Driven by the passionate and courageous radical Ellen Wilkinson, and the visionary firebrand Nye Bevan, a very British revolution is in the air. But in the face of bitter opposition, is this an audacious pledge of hope or a promise too far? Paul Unwin's new drama is a fascinating, deeply pertinent portrayal of the people who moulded modern Britain and what it cost them.

Cast/Performers

Suzanne Burden (Violet Attlee), Clare Burt (Ellen Wilkinson), Reece Dinsdale (Herbert Morrison), Martyn Ellis (Winston Churchill), Felixe Forde (Joan Vincent), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Richard Stafford-Cripps), Richard Harrington (Nye Bevan), Allison McKenzie (Jennie Lee), Majid Mehdizaheh-Valoujerdy (Thomas Merriman), Miles Richardson (Hugh Dalton), David Robb (Lord Moran), Clive Wood (Ernest Bevin), Andrew Woodall (Clement Attlee)

Creatives/Company

Author: Paul Unwin
Producer: Chichester Festival Theatre
Director(s): Jonathan Kent, Annelie Powell (CDG - casting)
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Dramaturg: Harry Mackrill
Other: Matt Ledbury (production manager)