“No talent at all when it comes to cooking – as you will discover – but when it comes to pissing off my children – immense talent – Olympian talent.”
Newbury, 1997. Sal is attempting to cook dinner for the family. She and husband David have pulled off a coup and gathered their brood back home for the weekend. Eldest son Carl is bringing his new girlfriend to meet everyone for the first time; middle daughter Polly is back from Cambridge University for the occasion; and youngest Tom will hopefully make it out of detention in time for dinner.
Sal and David would rather feed their kids with leftist ideals and welfarism than fancy cuisine. When you’ve named each of your offspring after your socialist heroes, you’ve given them a lot to live up to…
“When I was your age I wanted to be in a band and sleep with Mick Jagger – and Jimi Hendrix – so who am I to judge the choices you’ve made so far?”
Writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany’s previous collaborations at the Royal Court include Hope and Let the Right One In. Other collaborations include: Harry Potter & the Cursed Child (West End/Broadway). Jack’s other credits include: A Christmas Carol (Old Vic); National Treasure, This Is England ’90 (both earning a BAFTA for Best Mini-Series), Kiri. Royal Court Associate Director John’s other work at the Royal Court includes: Road, The Twits, The Pass.
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5 images This tender, bracing and beautiful portrait of family life is a throwback in many ways: not just because it occurs across three time spans in the recent past - from 1997 to 2007 and 2017 - but also to the type of Royal Court play that reflects the tensions and disappointments of a lifelong socialist idealism and activism, and its multiple betrayals from Blair to Brexit.
Full casting for the world premiere of the end of history... at the Royal Court Theatre has been announced, ahead of the show’s opening next month. Set in 1997, the end of history... follows Sal and David, a middle-aged couple whose eldest children have come home from university for a family weekend, as they continue to teach their offspring left-wing political ideas.
