CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, December 14, 2016

James Graham On How His 2012 Political Hit "This House" Will Go Down in 2016

The Theatre Times: The danger of writing political plays is that reality, of course, has a habit of overtaking you. More than overtaking you, actually – trouncing you on the dramatic Richter scale.

Four years ago, in the month Obama was re-elected President, I was lucky enough to have a play open at the National Theatre. Four years later, in the month Donald Trump won the right to replace him, This House is being revived in the West End. And without living up to the hand-wringing writer clichés – yes, I have been asking angsty questions about what a play written for a different political time will feel like, and “say” about, the new one we’re entering now. Post-Brexit, post-Trump and pre-God knows what else. All without the moral and spiritual crutches of David Bowie or Leonard Cohen to guide us.

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