A story called The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, in which award-winning author Dame Hilary Mantel imagined a plot to kill the 1980s prime minister, was controversial when it was published, and has now had its stage premiere in Liverpool.
The title was designed to grab attention – and divide opinion – but the new play’s makers say it explores some serious and very current issues, including violence against politicians, the actions of angry and disenfranchised young men, and how people could and should resolve their differences.
When Dame Hilary published her original short story in 2014, its title was meant to provoke a reaction, according to playwright Alexandra Wood.
“Hilary Mantel, from what I’ve heard about her, was mischievous and she knew what she was doing and she was being provocative,” Wood says.
“But the play doesn’t deliver on that simplicity of the title.”
Wood’s adaptation of The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher has just opened at the Liverpool Everyman theatre.
Animosity towards Lady Thatcher still smoulders in the city, which largely blamed her for its industrial decline, unemployment and neglect in the 80s.
But Wood says the play isn’t as simple as providing wish fulfilment for opponents of the divisive former PM.
“We give those people maybe 30 seconds worth of that, and actually the rest of the play is complicating it in a hopefully complex way,” she says.