{"id":61203,"date":"2026-05-09T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/fury-as-stage-play-the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher-opens-in-liverpool-just-a-week-after-gunman-tries-to-shoot-donald-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T08:01:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:01:00","slug":"fury-as-stage-play-the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher-opens-in-liverpool-just-a-week-after-gunman-tries-to-shoot-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/fury-as-stage-play-the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher-opens-in-liverpool-just-a-week-after-gunman-tries-to-shoot-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury as stage play The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher opens in Liverpool just a week after gunman tries to shoot Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Liverpool theatre has caused consternation after staging an adaptation of author Dame Hilary Mantel’s The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, just one week after a gunman was accused of trying to shoot US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The short story, published a year after the former Conservative Prime Minister’s death in 2013, imagined a plot to kill Thatcher and drew widespread criticism across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

Now playwright Alexandra Wood has adapted the plot and the production is on stage at theLiverpool Everyman theatre.<\/p>\n

The decision has sparked anger and concern among some for its focus on violence against a politician, following the murders of MPs Jo Cox in 2016 and Sir David Amess<\/a>in 2021.<\/p>\n

The play opened its doors on May 2, just a week after a gunman attempted to rush into a dinner attended by US President Donald Trump<\/a>in Washington to kill members of the administration.<\/p>\n

The timing also sparked criticism due to it coinciding with yesterday’s local elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former leader of the Conservative Party Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail: ‘I really question putting on the play before and just after a huge election, and I question whether it’s a huge dogwhistle.<\/p>\n

‘It’s one way of resurrecting a bogeyman, or bogeywoman, for the left and it’s troubling to suggest that violence pays.’<\/p>\n

He added that the timing was all the more ‘peculiar’ given the recent spate of attacks and attempted attacks against people in the UK, particularly among the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

‘You put on a play that is essentially about killing somebody, a politician – it’s really rather peculiar in the midst of people’s anger bubbling over.’<\/p>\n

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A Liverpool theatre has caused consternation after staging an adaptation of author Dame Hilary Mantel’s The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, just one week after a gunman was accused of trying to shoot US President Donald Trump<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Playwright Alexandra Wood has adapted the plot and the production is on stage at the Liverpool Everyman theatre<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Jade Marsden, a former Conservative candidate for mayor of the Liverpool City Region also told the BBC<\/a> <\/a>the decision to stage the play is wrong.<\/p>\n

‘I recognise that we shouldn’t be afraid to have debate and controversial plays in the arts,’ she said.<\/p>\n

‘However, I think given the political tensions in the world and the increase in violence towards politicians, albeit that Margaret Thatcher has already passed, I don’t think it should be encouraged.’<\/p>\n

But Ms Wood rejected claims the play glorifies violence, saying: ‘The play in no way advocates assassinating our political leaders, or anyone.’<\/p>\n

Award-winning authorDame Hilary was unapologetic for the work during her lifetime before her death aged 70 in 2022.<\/p>\n

She described her ‘boiling detestation’ for the politician, revealing she came up with the idea for the novel when she happened to see Thatcher through a window and realised how easy it might be to assassinate her.<\/p>\n

‘Immediately your eye measures the distance. I thought, if I wasn’t me, if I was someone else, she’d be dead,’ she said.<\/p>\n

When the book was first published in 2014, Nadine Dorries<\/a>, then the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, told the Daily Mail: ‘I cannot quite believe it. I am gutted because Hilary Mantel is one of my favourite authors.<\/p>\n

‘It is shocking as it is so close (to Margaret Thatcher<\/a>‘s death) and she still has living family and children. It is about a character whose demise is so recent.’<\/p>\n

Defending the work at the time,Dame Hilary said: ‘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 – we have to face it head-on.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The short story caused controversy and is set just a year before the IRA attempted to kill Thatcher by bombing The Grand Hotel in Brighton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mrs Thatcher’s suite escaped largely unscathed, besides the bathroom, which was severely damaged. Had she been in there getting ready for bed, she could have been killed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Because the repercussions of Mrs Thatcher’s reign have fed the nation. It is still resonating. And say what you like about her, whatever your view of her, she was a shaper of history.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Set in 1983, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher tells the fictional story of a sniper from Liverpool who plots to kill the PM by lying in wait at a window in Windsor, after being let into a flat by a woman who mistakes him for a plumber.<\/span><\/p>\n

The year it is set has extra significance at it is just one year before the IRA Brighton bomb plot, which sought to murder Thatcher at the Conservative Party conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

A device planted by IRA member Patrick Magee weeks earlier exploded during the early hours of October 12, injuring 30 people – although Thatcher herself remained unharmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the publication of the story former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit – whose wife was paralysed in the bombing – described it as a ‘sick book from a sick mind’.<\/span><\/p>\n

The play, which the Guardian gave a four-star review, is on at the Everyman until May 23 and has a 14+ age restriction.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the theatre’s content warning, it includes ‘references to murder, death and\/or dying’, ‘violence, kidnapping, physical and emotional abuse’ and ‘the use of herbal cigarettes’.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Liverpool theatre has caused consternation after staging an adaptation of author Dame Hilary Mantel’s The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, just one week after a gunman was accused of trying to shoot US President Donald Trump. The short story, published a year after the former Conservative Prime Minister’s death in 2013, imagined a plot to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}