Cancelling Socrates (NHB Modern Plays)

By Howard Brenton

Today, Socrates is revered as the founding father of Western philosophy. But in 399 BC Athens, he was a pain in the neck.

The plague is over, democracy is (just about) restored, and everyone would like to get back to normal. How hard is it for one ageing firebrand to stop asking questions? It's time to shut him up...

Based on eyewitness accounts, Howard Brenton's Cancelling Socrates is a provocative and witty play about an uncompromising voice in dangerous times. It was premiered at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in June 2022, directed by the venue's Artistic Director Tom Littler.

'A rich play of ideas... Brenton's script combines the ancient and modern so well that everyday profanities sit next to talk of slaves (ever so subtly ironised) and big philosophical ideas to create sparky, bathetic moments... [there are] clear, clever parallels to today... arresting and fiercely intelligent' - Guardian

'Howard Brenton's [play] looks delightfully like Up Pompeii! and has plenty of smart things to say... a buzzy hive of intellectual activity, swarming with witty repartee... asking big questions about faith and existence, the individual and the state, with the lightest of touches... a resonant warning from antiquity' - Telegraph

'A fascinating chamber play, an inspired combination of ancient and modern, high-flown rhetoric and gutter speech' - The Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jun 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781788505796

Howard Brenton

Howard Brenton was born in Portsmouth in 1942. His many plays include Christie in Love (Portable Theatre, 1969); Revenge (Theatre Upstairs, 1969); Magnificence (Royal Court Theatre, 1973); The Churchill Play (Nottingham Playhouse, 1974, and twice revived by the RSC, 1978 and 1988); Bloody Poetry (Foco Novo, 1984, and Royal Court Theatre, 1987); Weapons of Happiness (National Theatre, Evening Standard Award, 1976); Epsom Downs (Joint Stock Theatre, 1977); Sore Throats (RSC, 1978); The Romans in Britain (National Theatre, 1980, revived at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2006); Thirteenth Night (RSC, 1981); The Genius (1983), Greenland (1988) and Berlin Bertie (1992), all presented by the Royal Court; Kit’s Play (RADA Jerwood Theatre, 2000); Paul (National Theatre, 2005); In Extremis (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2006 and 2007); Never So Good (National Theatre, 2008); The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists adapted from the novel by Robert Tressell (Liverpool Everyman and Chichester Festival Theatre, 2010); Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2010 and 2011); 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre, 2012); #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); The Guffin (NT Connections, 2013); Drawing the Line (Hampstead Theatre, 2013) and Doctor Scroggy's War (Shakespeare's Globe, 2014) and Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre, 2016). Collaborations with other writers include Brassneck (with David Hare, Nottingham Playhouse, 1972); Pravda (with David Hare, National Theatre, Evening Standard Award, 1985) and Moscow Gold (with Tariq Ali, RSC, 1990). Versions of classics include The Life of Galileo (1980) and Danton’s Death (1982) both for the National Theatre, Goethe’s Faust (1995/6) for the RSC, a new version of Danton’s Death for the National Theatre (2010) and Dances of Death (Gate Theatre, 2013). He wrote thirteen episodes of the BBC1 drama series Spooks (2001–05, BAFTA Best Drama Series, 2003).