“So much of my faith in people has been broken of late and I am struggling to find something to believe in, again.”

This remarkable new play, from Caroline Bird directed by Lyceum Artistic associate Wils Wilson,  tells the inspiring and epic story of Ellen Wilkinson, Labour MP, who was forever on the right side of history, forever on the wrong side of life.

Caught between revolutionary and parliamentary politics, Ellen fights with an unstoppable, reckless energy for a better world. Running (quite literally in some cases) into the likes of Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway, she battles to save Jewish refugees in Nazi Germany; campaigns for Britain to aid the fight against Franco’s Fascists in Spain; and leads 200 workers in the Jarrow Crusade, marching from Newcastle to London to deliver a petition to end unemployment and poverty. She serves as a vital member of Churchill’s cabinet, and has affairs with communist spies and government ministers. But, despite all of this, she still finds herself – somehow – on the outside looking in.

This is the story of Ellen Wilkinson.

There is more than one way to kill a revolutionary…

Caroline Bird is an acclaimed playwright and poet – winner of the forward prize for best poetry collection in 2020. She was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme. In 2013 her acclaimed new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre and she was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards.