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Promise, The (Unwin)

  • Paul Unwin
  • Full Length Play, Drama, 1940s / WWII
  • 9M, 4F
  • ISBN: 9780573000614

To promise nearly fifty million people truly universal health care – ‘cradle to the grave’ – is crackers. Paul Unwin’s intriguing drama is a fascinating, deeply pertinent portrayal of the people who moulded modern Britain and what it cost them.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1940s / WWII
  • Target Audience: Senior, Adult
  • Cautions: Alcohol, Strong Language, Smoking

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre
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 is 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 The Promise is a fascinating, deeply pertinent portrayal of the people who moulded modern Britain and what it cost them.

This volume also contains the monologue At the Point of Need.
REVIEWS:

"Fascinating."

 The Telegraph

"This is relevant, intelligent theatre – informative and gripping."

 Sussex Express

"Sharply focused."

 The Stage

"It’s an intriguing watch and a good study of character within the socio-political landscape of post-war Britain suited to anybody with a fondness for the history of that time."

 Theatre and Tonic

Premiere Production: The Promise was originally produced by Chichester Festival Theatre, and was first performed at the Minerva Theatre on 19 July 2024.

Characters

  • Casting: 9M, 4F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible), Ensemble cast

  • Based on real people
    ELLEN WILKINSON – In her mid-fifties, she is a powerful, passionate woman. The only woman in the 1945 Labour Cabinet.
    CLEMENT ATTLEE – In his early sixties. Stiff, diffident but a cool political operator.
    VIOLET ATTLEE – Attlee’s wife. Upper-middle-class and dynamic.
    HERBERT MORRISON – In his late fifties. A politician to his marrow.
    ERNIE BEVIN – Mid-sixties. A powerful old school Labour and Union politician. Loyal.
    NYE BEVAN – Mid-fifties. A charismatic and inspiring insurgent.
    JENNIE LEE – Early fifties. More than Bevan’s wife – one of the great Labour MPs. Scottish, vivacious.
    HUGH DALTON – Late fifties. Four square, tough, arrogant.
    RICHARD STAFFORD-CRIPPS – Late fifties, possibly feels older. Has an edgy fragility, but a formidable intellect.
    LORD MORAN WINSTON (CHARLIE WILSON) – A senior doctor.
    WINSTON CHURCHILL

  • Invented
    JOAN VINCENT – A young black Labour Party worker
    THOMAS MERRIMAN – A young architecture student
    YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER
    LABOUR PARTY WORKERS
    A SENIOR NURSE
    A DOCTOR
    WAITERS
    A BOY SINGER

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Promise, The (Unwin) Script Order Now

    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 is 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 The Promise is a fascinating, deeply pertinent portrayal of the people who moulded modern Britain and what it cost them.

    This volume also contains the monologue At the Point of Need.

    		$24.95

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