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The Angry Brigade
Its government has declared a vicious class war. A one-sided war . . . We have started to fight back . . . with bombs.
Against a backdrop of Tory cuts, high unemployment and the deregulated economy of 1970s Britain, a young urban guerrilla group The Angry Brigade. Their MPs, embassies, police, pageant queens. A world of order is shattered by anarchy and the rules have changed. An uprising has begun. No one is exempt.
As a special police squad hunt the home-grown terrorists whose identities shocked the nation, James Graham's heart-stopping thriller lures us into a frenzied world that looks much like our own.
The Angry Brigade was first produced by Paines Plough in September 2014 and this edition, featuring changes to the script, has been published to coincide with the production's transfer to the Bush Theatre, London, in May 2015.
Against a backdrop of Tory cuts, high unemployment and the deregulated economy of 1970s Britain, a young urban guerrilla group The Angry Brigade. Their MPs, embassies, police, pageant queens. A world of order is shattered by anarchy and the rules have changed. An uprising has begun. No one is exempt.
As a special police squad hunt the home-grown terrorists whose identities shocked the nation, James Graham's heart-stopping thriller lures us into a frenzied world that looks much like our own.
The Angry Brigade was first produced by Paines Plough in September 2014 and this edition, featuring changes to the script, has been published to coincide with the production's transfer to the Bush Theatre, London, in May 2015.
- GenresPlays
128 pages, Paperback
First published October 9, 2014
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
James Graham
22 books5 followersJames Graham is a multi award-winning playwright and screenwriter.
His play This House gained critical acclaim, enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre's Olivier in 2013 and its 2017 West End revival was Olivier-nominated. It was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010's by Methuen Drama.
James created theatre history when his two plays Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and Labour of Love, a romantic political comedy, played in theatres next to each other in the West End in 2017. James won an Olivier award in 2018 for Labour of Love and Ink transferred to Broadway in 2019, receiving six Tony award nominations.
James' play The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and was BAFTA-nominated. His most recent television film, Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4/HBO) is nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award.
His play This House gained critical acclaim, enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre's Olivier in 2013 and its 2017 West End revival was Olivier-nominated. It was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010's by Methuen Drama.
James created theatre history when his two plays Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and Labour of Love, a romantic political comedy, played in theatres next to each other in the West End in 2017. James won an Olivier award in 2018 for Labour of Love and Ink transferred to Broadway in 2019, receiving six Tony award nominations.
James' play The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and was BAFTA-nominated. His most recent television film, Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4/HBO) is nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 21, 2023
I liked it and thought it artistically and politically insightful but jesus fuck why doesn't it pass the bechdel test
October 5, 2023
I read this play in order to understand and perform a monologue for it - so it wasn’t exactly something I was 100% interested in. But I must say that it’s an entertaining read.
I have a huge preference of the first half - The Branch - over the second half - The Brigade - but I still found it fun to read all the way through. I think the first half is perfectly grounded and structured, rising in tension with rich, interesting characters at the centre of it all, pushing this crime thriller narrative to its very limits by restricting it to one or two locations with a minimal cast. You see the case’s toll on the cast instead of the intricate details of the mystery, which I think works wonders.
The second half gets far too silly and surreal for me, constantly jumping back and forth through time and different impersonations of different people.. all performed by a cast of 4. I understand the intent is to capture the anarchistic and random nature of the titular terrorist group, but I feel like it could’ve been handled in a far better manner as I was constantly finding myself thrown off and confused, and a little bit embarrassed to be reading it. That being said, there were also some really beautiful speeches in this half - one of them being what I’m performing later today.
Overall though I do like the play. It’s very small-scale and grounded and it’s a great, intimate examination of its protagonists - focusing on the human factor rather than the large-scale, explosive scenario that most writers would want to focus on. My kind of play.
I have a huge preference of the first half - The Branch - over the second half - The Brigade - but I still found it fun to read all the way through. I think the first half is perfectly grounded and structured, rising in tension with rich, interesting characters at the centre of it all, pushing this crime thriller narrative to its very limits by restricting it to one or two locations with a minimal cast. You see the case’s toll on the cast instead of the intricate details of the mystery, which I think works wonders.
The second half gets far too silly and surreal for me, constantly jumping back and forth through time and different impersonations of different people.. all performed by a cast of 4. I understand the intent is to capture the anarchistic and random nature of the titular terrorist group, but I feel like it could’ve been handled in a far better manner as I was constantly finding myself thrown off and confused, and a little bit embarrassed to be reading it. That being said, there were also some really beautiful speeches in this half - one of them being what I’m performing later today.
Overall though I do like the play. It’s very small-scale and grounded and it’s a great, intimate examination of its protagonists - focusing on the human factor rather than the large-scale, explosive scenario that most writers would want to focus on. My kind of play.
May 26, 2017
One of my absolute favorite plays of all time. I saw it performed at the Watford Palace Theatre when I was living in London. Harry Melling was so captivating and I loved how raw and intense the play gets at each acts' climax. James Graham also did a talkback afterwards and talked about his inspiration and writing process, which was so interesting!
June 27, 2017
"...Carry the hatchet into the forest of prejudice that besets us."
July 30, 2017
Graham introduces the book by inviting others to transform the play as they see fit - smooth read especially for those that have seen and admired the play
August 19, 2022
Awesome play. One of my favourites! I love James Graham’s writing style, it flows beautifully- definitely recommend. Good for a 2F 2M piece, and there’s a nice monologue in there for women. <3
October 14, 2023
Perhaps it's the lack of anarchy in me, but I definitely preferred the first half of the play to the second. While I understand that "The Brigade" is meant to allow chaos for both the actors and audience in comparison to the structure of "The Branch," the second half was much harder to get through and understand- perhaps it would have been better to view live. I also felt a bit of disconnect from the members of the Brigade, which might have been intentional, but I felt as if I had a definitive idea of who each of the police officers was and what purpose they served, while I only had a partial idea of the Brigade's members. They spoke about a lot, but also nothing. I did, however, really appreciate the Branch becoming more anarchistic as the act went on, as well as the phone calls between Smith and Anna and their use as a connecting line between the acts. Nice touch.
May 26, 2025
3.5 - excellent dialogue with the bones of some good character development/interiority, but feels a touch underbaked. (Or maybe I’m just a sucker for psychodrama.)
May 1, 2024
i LOVE this play. read it as i chose to do it for my examined scripted piece for drama a level (anna/jim) due to my unhealthy obsession with a totally different thing james graham wrote one time LMAO (we were like the only obscure play but i have 0 regrets) the more i went over it the more i was legitimately in awe of how genius it is??? i don’t know how it would be on stage with such a discrepancy between acts butttt reading it it’s purely geniussss, especially the dynamics in act 2, decided to get really into the actual group in research etc etc (i even went to the area they were in i’m actually such a nerd) and james graham captures them so expertly, combining humour and nuance and grit with such genius work!!!! 11/10 and act 1 also eats, annotated sm on that despite not needing barely any of that for my coursework on my scene 😭
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews