It's late summer, 1983. Out in the street, the world is waiting to greet Margaret Thatcher as she emerges from hospital after routine surgery. But here in this room her life is up for deadly debate… and history is holding its breath.

Two people. One window. A gun. When the time comes to pull the trigger, what side of history will you be on?

Based on the incendiary short story by Hilary Mantel, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher is a darkly funny and dangerously tense psychological thriller. Alexandra Wood's stage adaptation was first performed at Liverpool Everyman in 2026, directed by John Young. 

'A small triumph: a lesson in artfully controlled savagery' Sunday Times on Hilary Mantel's original short story



Hilary Mantel was nominated for the Booker Prize four times, winning it twice for her epic historical novels about Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Alexandra Wood is an award-winning playwright whose other work includes The Tyler Sisters, The Human Ear and a stage adaptation of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.



'Provocative, powerful theatre... Alexandra Wood has the sensitivity to leave Mantel's laugh lines just as they are, but also the imagination to dramatise the story's politics... springs into theatrical life... the playwright carves out space to explore the ramifications of Mantel's story... a bold and provocative adaptation'



'A timely reflection on political violence... a nuanced adaptation that raises thorny questions about extremism'



'Incendiary... darkly funny... gasp-inducing... explosive'