Never So Good

Genre: Drama
Opened 26 March 2008
Written: Howard Brenton
Directed: Howard Davies
Produced: National Theatre
Cast:Jeremy Irons (Macmillan), Anna Carteret, Bertie Carvel, Anna Chancellor
Synopsis: About Harold Macmillan (Conservative politician and Prime Minister 1957-1963) : Set against a back-drop of fading Empire, war, the Suez crisis, vintage champagne, adultery and vicious Tory politics at the Ritz, Howard Brenton's Never So Good paints the portrait of a brilliant, witty but complex man, at times comically and, in the end, tragically out of kilter with his times.

What the popular press had to say.....
ALICE JONES for The INDEPENDENT says, "He is [Harold Macmillan], in Brenton's likeable, amusing version, a sympathetic mix of the ridiculous and the tragic." NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "Expressionistic production works like a dream...thrillingly dramatises an unsolved problem about our role in the world." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "One gets a valuable history-lesson and a plausible portrait of Macmillan; I simply crave a more radically revisionist account of the last great political actor-manager." JOHN THAXTER for THE STAGE says, "A surprisingly affectionate portrait of the Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan" BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "Engrossing...The play is two or three cuts above the usual theatrical bio." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Gripping, compassionate and often delightfully comic play."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Guardian
The Times
Daily Telegraph