55 Days / by Howard Brenton

December 1648. The army has occupied London. Parliament votes not to put the imprisoned King on trial, so the army moves against Westminster and the only military coup in English history takes place. But the army leadership remains divided: Cromwell would prefer a compromise with the King, but the King will not compromise. A new nation must therefore be forged…and over 55 days, an entirely new world is created. In this new play from the award winning playwright of Anne Boleyn, Howard Brenton depicts the culmination of the mid-seventeenth century. In these dangerous and dramatic times, in a country exhausted by Civil War, the great men of the day were trying to think the unthinkable: to create a country without a king.

First performed at the Hampstead Theatre, October 18th 2012.