Cast Announced for stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

One shot could change history in this incendiary short story by Hilary Mantel, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. Created for Liverpool and the Everyman, it opens on Saturday 2 May for a limited run until Saturday 23 May.

Darkly funny and dangerously tense, this gripping psychological thriller is written by Alexandra Wood, directed by John Young, and stars Robbie O’Neill and Anita Reynolds. An unmissable theatrical event, this world premiere plunges audiences into an audacious exploration of power, class, and political violence, posing one of history’s most provocative ‘what ifs?’—inviting us to imagine how a single moment might have reshaped the world.

Set in Windsor in 1983, Margaret Thatcher is having routine eye surgery. As the world waits to greet her from hospital, Caroline’s day is interrupted by an unexpected visitor… Brendan. As Thatcher’s life becomes source for their deadly debate, will the trigger be pulled?

The play’s director, John Young, first met with Hilary Mantel 10 years ago, before her death in 2022, to discuss a stage production.  This adaptation, supported by Mantel’s husband, Gerald McEwen, has also worked with Alex Coupe, lecturer in theatre and drama studies at the University of Liverpool, who researched the Hilary Mantel papers at the Huntington Library, unearthing correspondence on how shocked people were by the original short story.

John Young said, “This isn’t just a play for people who have an opinion or strong feeling towards Maggie Thatcher. It’s about class, about lives that collide, people trying to understand, asking questions, coming together, and bridging that divide. I also think it’s a play about what happens when people feel they don’t have a voice, and how dangerous it is when they feel they don’t have anything to lose.

There are big questions about Thatcher’s impact on our country, about what she represents now, and about her relationship to a divided Britain. And of course, the relationship between Thatcher and Liverpool. One of the gorgeous things about the Everyman space is that it can do both intimacy and ‘massiveness’ really well. I think that’s what this play does. You’re in a small flat with just two people, but the ideas and subjects they’re talking about are enormous. It’s about this flat, but it’s also about so much more.”

Alongside the production are two free ‘Step Inside’ events to explore: Liverpool’s Most Explosive Decade on Wednesday 22 April (with Stephen Kelly a leading professor of modern Irish history and British/Irish relations), and Hilary Mantel’s Darkly Playful World on Thursday 14 May (led by Dr. Alex Coupe from University of Liverpool and Dr. Lucy Arnold from University of Worcester). There will also be a post-show discussion with the cast and creatives on Wednesday 13 May.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher plays at Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Sat 2 – Sat 23 May 2026. Tickets are available here.