Maggie

Description

Britain would undoubtedly be a very different place if the details surrounding an incident in a Houston hotel in 1977, had ever seen the light of day at the time. An incident involving the then leader of the opposition, Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis repeatedly getting stuck in a lavatory - a room full of Texas business tycoons, a missing hairdresser and the CIA. Two years later Margaret would become Prime Minister. It would be decades before details of the events at the Warwick Hotel entered the public domain, given the British government’s longstanding rule preventing certain official documents from being circulated. Afterall, politics is all about perception. An absurd political comedy about the lengths that people will go to in order to control the narrative. Inspired by true events. ‘Maggie’ isn’t intended as a documentary – it will push things to the extreme and it will take creative License – dipping into farce and slapstick in the process. Think Armando Iannucci’s ‘The Death of Stalin’, Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ with nods to the work of the Coen brothers.

Biblical Connection

‘Maggie’ came out of reading The Parable of the Sower and A Lamp on A Stand in the book of Mark. Side-by-side they offer an intriguing insight into Jesus as both a public figure and in his private relationships with his disciples. After multiple readings A Lamp on A Stand reads as though Jesus was someone who possessed a dry wit. Aside from being an impeccable teacher in public, he here makes a pertinent point to his disciples, whilst simultaneously creating a vibrant image for effect, to push his message to the finish line. A literal lamp (or an oil lamp as it would have been in bible times), if placed under a bed would cause a fire and untold damage. What Jesus infers would be ridiculous – and I think he knows it. The directness of his delivery, combined with a meticulous choice in language, bears the hallmarks of a comedian with great timing, a clear understanding of satire and darkly comic sensibility. Mark 4:22 is an opportunity to explore the comic potential of keeping secrets - ‘For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light'.