The provocative short story by acclaimed author Hilary Mantel, which imagines the assassination of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is being brought to the stage in a new theatrical adaptation scheduled for Liverpool next year.
From Page to Stage: A Controversial Vision
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983, originally published in the Guardian in 2014, will be transformed into a psychological thriller at Liverpool's Everyman theatre in May. The adaptation comes from playwright Alexandra Wood and will be directed by John Young, who emphasises the production explores broader themes beyond its controversial premise.
"This isn't just a play for people who have an opinion or strong feeling towards Maggie Thatcher," Young explained. "It's about class, about lives that collide, people trying to understand, asking questions, coming together and bridging that divide."
The Story Behind the Controversy
The narrative is set in 1983, when a woman in a "genteel corner" of Windsor answers her door expecting a plumber, only to encounter a gunman seeking to use her flat's vantage point. His target is the then-prime minister, who is undergoing an eye operation at a nearby private hospital.
Mantel drew inspiration from her own experience of spotting Thatcher in the hospital grounds from her Windsor flat on the exact date mentioned in the title. "Immediately your eye measures the distance," she told the Guardian in 2014. "I thought, if I wasn't me, if I was someone else, she'd be dead."
Despite this moment occurring three decades earlier, Mantel only wrote the story a year after Thatcher's death, explaining she had struggled to develop the dynamic between the gunman, motivated by "Ireland. Only Ireland," and the female narrator. "They must examine their own myths and those of their communities," Mantel noted. "Each colludes for their own reasons."
Political Fallout and Lasting Relevance
Upon its original publication, the story attracted significant criticism, including calls from Conservative MPs for police investigation. Mantel dismissed these responses, stating: "I think it would be unconscionable to say this is too dark, we can't examine it. We can't be running away from history."
Director John Young highlights the continued relevance of the story's themes, particularly in Liverpool. The sniper possesses what the narrator describes as a Liverpudlian accent, and the story unfolds during a period of sustained industrial decline in the port city, just two summers after the Toxteth riots.
"There are big themes about what Thatcher means to us now, and what she meant, and her relationship to a divided Britain," Young said. "And of course, the relationship between Thatcher and Liverpool."
The production will run at the Everyman theatre from 2nd to 23rd May, with casting yet to be announced. Young praised the venue's ability to handle both intimate drama and expansive themes, noting: "You're in a small flat with just two people, but the ideas and subjects they're talking about are enormous."
