Three Days in May

Synopsis

Ben Brown’s political thriller takes us behind the doors of Number Ten during three of the most pivotal days in British History, when, extraordinarily, giving in to Hitler was considered by some to be a ‘viable option’. Having urgently assembled the British war cabinet, the new Prime Minister is suddenly confronted with an intense game of political chess between peace treaty supporters and its opponents. Divided on whether to negotiate terms through Mussolini or escalate the battle against fascism alone, one man has to make a monumental decision, which will shape the future of the free world...

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 5 September 2011

In many ways Ben Brown’s play Three Days in May is an old-fashioned one. People talk – they talk a great deal. Momentous events occur – but they happen off-stage. The stage itself is dominated by a long table facing the audience squarely with chairs behind it and backed by a map of Europe disintegrating under the relentless march of Hitler’s battalions from the Baltic to the Atlantic.

The three 1940 days in question are the time when Britain “wobbled” before the likelihood of extinction. Newly appointed prime minister Winston Churchill has to meld the defeatism of some of his Cabinet colleagues and his equally newly-appointed French counterpart with military reality and his own invincible determination to fight on – whatever the odds. 1940 is now 70 years in the past; a playwright can explore its shades of grey as well as the black and the white.

Warren Clarke gives us the bulldog Churchill in full measure; itt...

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Latest User Review

B Eacott - 8 September 2011:

This play is far better suited to radio than stage. After the initial decision is taken shortly into the 2nd half, the drive and interest of the narrative is gone and too much time is spent 'padding' with drinks and cigars. Because the outcome is history, one would have hoped for new material but there was little new to offer. Interesting, but not riveting...

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